A rapid automatic technique for generating operant key-press behavior in rats

Experimentally naive rats were trained to key press on a fixed-ratio 10 schedule of food reinforcement by a completely automatic procedure within a single, 1-hr session. Control procedures demonstrated that the resulting behavior was an operant, under control of the schedule of reinforcement and the specified reinforcing stimulus (food). A simple, combination food-tray operandum, also described, was used as the basis for the training technique.     

Psychology Internships in the Treatment of Severe Mental Illness: Implications for Training in Academic Medical Centers

Despite an increasing focus over the past 2 decades by federal and state governments on the care of persons with severe mental illness, psychologists remain underrepresented among behavioral health professionals working with this population. Within the discipline there is growing concern about the need to adequately train, recruit, and retain psychologists in this specialty. This is a particular concern in academic medical settings where the overall severity of illness among those receiving psychiatric services continues to increase. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to intensively examine the experience of predoctoral interns engaged in treating individuals with severe mental illness in an academic medical center in order to identify the professional developmental experiences and training needs of those learning to care for this population. This analysis, conducted with semistructured interviews at four points during the internship year, yielded a series of recommendations for improving internship training and recruiting psychologists to this specialty.     

Effects of a Daytime Nap on Primed and Repeated Remote Associates Tests and Relations with Divergent Creativity

The effect of napping versus wakefulness was studied on primed and repeated Remote Associate Tests (RATs) and on divergent creativity tests. The participants were 42 students from the USA, studying international courses at a Swedish university. The hypotheses for the RATs were (1), when the correct answers were primed before the nap, the RAT should be solved better for those who entered REM sleep, compared to those with no REM sleep or a resting condition; and (2), when retested the RAT should be solved better after a nap than after rest. For the creativity tests, hypothesis (3) was that creativity should be higher after the nap than after rest. Hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 3 were not supported. Hypothesis 2 was supported in an ANOVA. The REM group improved more than the rest group on the repeated RAT. Also, the No-REM and rest groups differed, strengthening the importance of both REM and No-REM sleep for creative problem-solving.     

Gender (Non)conformity in Middle Childhood: A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Gender-Typed Behavior,Friendship, and Peer Preference

The present study investigated the associations among gender, gender-typed behavior, and peer preference in 54 Year 5 (9–10 year-old) children in the United Kingdom. Children completed self-reports about their gendered behavior, nominated friends, and participated in a one-on-one interview regarding their preference and non-preference for hypothetical classmates. Results indicated that children were similar to their friends in terms of gender and engagement in gender-typed activities. Regarding potential classmates, the gender nonconforming boy was the most at risk for peer rejection. Students preferred the gender conforming boy and gender nonconforming girl—most often citing masculine activities as reasons why they liked the potential classmate, and feminine activities as reasons why they did not like the potential classmate. Results suggest that feminine activities are devalued in current society, even for girls. Children’s own engagement in gendered activities was also associated with their choice of potential classmate. These results are interpreted in line with social constructionist, social dominance, and hegemonic masculinity theories of gender development and socialization. Knowledge about these patterns of preference and non-preference will help teachers identify students at risk for rejection, enabling them to work proactively to create a positive social environment.     

Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation

Meditation can be conceptualized as a family of complex emotional and attentional regulatory training regimes developed for various ends, including the cultivation of well-being and emotional balance. Among these various practices, there are two styles that are commonly studied. One style, focused attention meditation, entails the voluntary focusing of attention on a chosen object. The other style, open monitoring meditation, involves nonreactive monitoring of the content of experience from moment to moment. The potential regulatory functions of these practices on attention and emotion processes could have a long-term impact on the brain and behavior.     

A prospective study of appraisals in childhood posttraumatic stress disorder

This study investigated the predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children following a diagnosis of traumatic injury. Children (N=76) aged between 7 and 13 who were admitted to hospital following injury were assessed within a month of trauma for acute stress disorder (ASD), negative appraisals, as well as parental stress reactions. Children (N=62) were re-assessed 6-months later for PTSD and negative appraisals. The majority of the variance of chronic posttraumatic stress was accounted for by negative appraisals about future harm. This study supports cognitive models of PTSD, and suggests that younger children who exaggerate their vulnerability after trauma exposure are high risk for PTSD after trauma.     

Theologizing the Human Jesus: An Ancient (and Modern) Approach to Christology Reassessed

Many contemporary Christologies, while paying lip-service to the primacy of the human Jesus, devote little attention to the theological status of his humanity. They may be deflected from this task by such factors as preference for experienced-based symbol; the fragmentation of biblical studies and dogmatics; the imperatives of contextual hermeneutics; and the preoccupation with methodology rather than substance. But the human Jesus is only theologically meaningful when viewed on a larger canvas than that of either idealist metaphysics or historical reconstruction. The classical doctrines of the anhypostasis and enhypostasis of Jesus' humanity offer a still useful way of highlighting the primacy of grace, and, contrary to common caricature, do not undermine the density of his human experience. Such an account needs to be supplemented, however, with a robust pneumatology in order to specify the relevance of the human Jesus for revelation, salvation, anthropology, ethics and eschatology.