Maternal aggression: disruption by perioral anesthesia in lactating Long-Evans rats (Rattus norvegicus)

Role of perioral somatosensation in the display of maternal aggression in Long-Evans Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) was investigated during early lactation by local anesthesia of the mystacial pads with lidocaine, which blocks conduction in the infraorbital nerve. Acute perioral anesthesia markedly reduced the likelihood that maternal aggression was expressed; this effect of perioral anesthesia was not ameliorated by a repeated test with the same treatment or by pretreatment fighting experience. The dams that fought with the intruder during perioral anesthesia did so after greatly increased sniffing contact and with decreased vigor compared with controls. Males that were attacked tended to freeze, whereas males that were not attacked were active. Thus, trigeminal afferents are critical for the initiation and normal execution of maternal aggression responses in Norway rats.     

The lost e-mail method: Milgram’s lost-letter technique in the age of the Internet

We examined Milgram’s (1977) lost-letter technique using e-mail. In the first experiment, 79 college faculty received mock lost e-mail messages. Nineteen percent of those who received the messages responded, in all cases by returning the message to the “sender” instead of forwarding it to the “recipient.” In the second study, attitudes toward presidential candidate Ross Perot were examined by sending out two different messages to 200 randomly selected e-mail addresses in the United States. Although there was no differential response rate, examination of content revealed attitudes consistent with concurrent poll data.     

Effect of Persuasive Appeals in AIDS PSAs and Condom Commercials on Intentions to Use Condoms1

The study compared the effect of five persuasive appeals used in AIDS PSAs and condom commercials (fear arousal-no sex/condom theme; fear arousal-sex/condom theme; erotic; humorous; factual) on 122 male and 114 female college students' i]ntentions to use and taking of condoms. Results showed that the two fear appeals were more effective than other appeals in increasing intentions to use condoms with a new partner. The fear appeal–no sex/condom theme was more effective than other appeals for increasing intentions to use condoms with a steady partner. Compared to men, women rated commercials as more effective for increasing intentions to use condoms with a new partner. Persuasive appeals had no effect on the taking of free condoms. The best predictor of commercial effectiveness was the degree to which a commercial evoked a high fear of AIDS. Other significant predictors were subjects' a]ttitude toward condom use and commercial qualities of being humorous, romantic, credible, and factual. Implications are that all five types of appeals are potentially effective for use in AIDS PSAs. Recommendations include combining appeals (e.g. fear with erotic) and emphasizing the positive features of condom use.     

ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAINTAINED BY STEREOTYPIC OBJECT MANIPULATION

In the current investigation, 2 participants with mental retardation displayed property destruction and stereotypy, and both responses involved the same materials (e.g., breaking and tapping plastic objects). Three experiments were conducted (a) to indirectly assess the functions of these two responses, (b) to determine their relation to one another, and (c) to develop a treatment to reduce the more serious behavior, property destruction. In Experiment 1, previously destroyed materials were either present or absent, and their presence reduced property destruction but not stereotypy. In Experiment 2, matched toys (ones that produced sensory stimulation similar to stereotypy) were either present or absent, or were replaced by unmatched toys (for 1 participant). Matched toys produced large reductions and unmatched toys produced small reductions in property destruction and stereotypy. In Experiment 3, attempts to pick up undestroyed objects were either blocked or not blocked while matched toys were continuously available. Response blocking reduced property destruction (and attempts), prevented stereotypy, and increased manipulation of matched toys. These results suggest that the two aberrant responses formed a chain (e.g., breaking and then tapping the object), which was maintained by the sensory consequences (e.g., auditory stimulation) of the terminal response, and that previously destroyed material or matched toys made the initial response (property destruction) unnecessary.     

Macro- and microlevel factors related to sense of community: The case of temporary neighborhoods in Israel

This study examines macro and micro factors influencing the development of sense of community (Davidson & Cotter, 1980) in two different populations (immigrants and veterans) in new temporary neighborhoods in Israel. At the macrolevel, the major factors examined were population size, population density, number of dwelling units in the site, urbanity of the area, ethnic heterogeneity, and peripheriality of the region. Three kinds of variables were examined on the microlevel: (a) personal attitudes: evaluation of the dwelling unit and satisfaction with public services; (b) social networks; and (c) sociodemographic characteristics. Data were collected from 242 immigrants from the former USSR and from 60 Israeli veterans, residing in 5 different sites. Two different patterns of predictors of sense of community emerged in the two different samples. In the veteran sample, only one macrolevel variable entered the stepwise analysis equation: the number of dwelling units in the site. In the immigrant sample, three significant microlevel factors entered the equation: evaluation of the dwelling unit, external network, and age. The data thus suggest that the major determinant factors underlying sense of community vary for different groups of people. The paper is based on a study initiated and financed by the Ministry of Housing and Construction, the Unit of Social Policy, Israel.     

Cognitive processing therapy for chronic PTSD from childhood sexual abuse: A case study

This paper describes a case of chronic Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, 4th edn; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The client has a long history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), as well as repeated sexual victimization as an adult and addiction issues. She presented with significant avoidance symptoms, including a highly restricted range of affect and distinct feelings of detachment from others. These symptoms had been greatly reduced by the end of the 17-week therapy including both individual and group modalities. The paper elaborates on theoretical issues, the Cognitive Processing Therapy model (Resick & Schnicke, 1993) as it was adapted for use with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, the various phases of the therapeutic process, and specific examples of therapeutic change with this particularly complicated case.     

Maternal stress and pituitary-adrenal manipulations during pregnancy in rats: effects on morphology and sexual behavior of male offspring.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the demasculinizing and feminizing effects of prenatal stress (i.e., stress applied to the mother during pregnancy) in rats reported previously are mediated by activation of the maternal pituitary-adrenal axis. Neither whole-body restraint, with or without hyperthermia, nor ACTH treatment during the last third of gestation had any reliable effect on masculine or feminine sexual behavior in male Sprague-Dawley offspring, although these treatments produced maternal pathology and evidence of maternal adrenocorticoid release. Significant littermate similarity was found for almost every morphological and behavioral measure. Failure to control for the litter variable may account for many previously reported effects of prenatal stress on sexual behavior in rats. The discrepancy between the present and earlier findings is discussed in terms of methodological and theoretical considerations.     

Attention to important versus trivial tasks and salience of fatigue-related symptoms for coronary prone individuals

The present study tested the hypothesis that individuals with the Type A coronary prone behavior pattern focus their attention more on important tasks, and less on trivial tasks than do Type B's. The study used a paradigm in which some subjects worked on math problems (important task) and rated intervening mood items (trivial task), whereas others rated mood items they were to memorize (important task) and worked on intervening math problems (trivial task). All subjects were later tested on recall of mood items. Results indicated that Type A's performed better on math problems and recalled more fatigue-related mood items when the task was important than when it was trivial; for Type B subjects, there was no difference in the number of math problems solved correctly or number of mood items recalled between important and trivial task conditions. Moreover, Type A's reported greater fatigue when mood recall was the important task than when math was the important task, whereas fatigue ratings of Type B's did not differ across these conditions. The findings suggest that Type A's suppress their attention to fatigue-related symptoms only when symptoms are not the objects of focus.