Pathways to Careers: A Videotape Review

Pathways to Careers produced by the Pennsylvania Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (POICC), Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry; Harrisburg, PA. 1994, 60 minutes, $15.00. A “Career Development Awareness Guide” accompanies the video.     

Multicultural Issues in Consultation

In this article the authors examine the historical development of consultation and superimpose multicultural theories and models onto several traditional consultation models. Included in this article is a selective review of literature from consultation, communication, and education as they relate to multicultural issues. An ethical imperative for the consultant is made to acknowledge, validate, and implement multicultural sensitivity.     

Shock preexposure and the reduced effectiveness of shock

In three experiments experience with shock was shown to reduce the effectiveness of shock as a reinforcer or motivator. In Experiment 1 rats were given signaled shock in a box separate from the runway where they were subsequently punished. These rats were less suppressed by shock punishment than rats that had no previous shock experience. In Experiment 2 preshocked rats were less suppressed by punishment and were slower to learn an escape-avoidance response than nonpreshocked rats, whether the preshock was signaled or unsignaled. In Experiment 3 as number of CS-shock pairings increased, fear of the CS decreased as did fear of the context. These results suggest that some central adaptation process produced by experience with shock reduces the effectiveness of shock as a reinforcer whenever shock is used repeatedly. This is independent of other effects, such as context blocking, that can affect responding after shock preexposure.     

Conflict Intensity,Family History,and Physiological Stress Reactions to Conflict Within Romantic Relationships

This study drew upon the physiological model of stress and desensitization processes to deduce hypotheses linking the intensity of conflict communication and exposure to familial verbal aggression in childhood to experiences of conflict within romantic relationships. One hundred college‐aged students (50 dating couples) participated in a dyadic interaction in which partners discussed a source of conflict in their romantic relationship. Participants reported childhood exposure to familial verbal aggression, third‐party observers rated the intensity of conflict communication, and salivary cortisol indexed physiological stress responses to the conflict interactions. As predicted, results showed a positive association between conflict intensity and cortisol reactivity, and this association was attenuated for individuals who reported higher, rather than lower, levels of childhood exposure to familial verbal aggression.     

Relational Turbulence Theory: Explaining Variation in Subjective Experiences and Communication Within Romantic Relationships

This essay extends the relational turbulence model as a framework for understanding communication in romantic relationships. Following the relational turbulence model, relational turbulence theory identifies relational uncertainty and interdependence as parameters that shape subjective experiences, but the theory clarifies the theoretical processes underlying their distinctive effects. In addition, relational turbulence theory articulates causal processes linking cognitive appraisals and emotions to communication. Relational turbulence theory also describes how episodes characterized by biased appraisals, intense emotions, and volatile communication coalesce into global evaluations of relationships as turbulent. In turn, the theory addresses the effect of relational turbulence on personal, relational, and social outcomes. Finally, the theory explains how communication can contribute to the development of both turbulence and resilience in romantic relationships.     

Explaining the Durable Effects of Verbal Person‐Centered Supportive Communication: Indirect Effects or Invisible Support?

Researchers have documented benefits from receiving supportive messages high in verbal person‐centeredness (VPC), but the processes through which such messages produce longitudinal effects remain unclear. This study evaluated two perspectives (i.e., indirect effects and invisible support) that address how supportive messages can produce durable effects and tested sex differences in those effects. 255 dyads completed a laboratory‐based interaction in which level of VPC and sex of the support provider were manipulated. 3 weeks later, support receivers evaluated the conversations and their stressor. Variations in VPC produced durable effects both when messages were positively evaluated initially and when they were evaluated as supportive by providers or third‐party observers but judged low in supportiveness by receivers. Provider sex moderated the results.     

Regulatory focus and affective recall

In two studies, we tested the impact of regulatory focus on recalled affect for past academic outcomes. Because promotion focus concerns achieving gains, it should be related to greater recalled positive affect. In contrast, prevention focus concerns avoiding losses, and should be related to greater recalled negative affect. In Study 1, promotion focus led to greater recalled positive affect for positive events, while prevention focus led to greater recalled negative affect regardless of event valence. In Study 2, promotion focus increased recalled positive affect for both positive and negative events, whereas prevention focus increased recalled negative affect for both positive and negative events. These studies demonstrate that current motivation can alter memory for past affective experiences; the regulatory focus ascribed to a previous event changes the extent to which people remember their emotional experience. Implications are discussed.     

Recognition memory for social and non-social odors: differential effects of neurotoxic lesions to the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex

The contributions of the hippocampus (HC) and perirhinal cortex (PER) to recognition memory are currently topics of debate in neuroscience. Here we used a rapidly-learned (seconds) spontaneous novel odor recognition paradigm to assess the effects of pre-training N-methyl-D-aspartate lesions to the HC or PER on odor recognition memory. We tested memory for both social and non-social odor stimuli. Social odors were acquired from conspecifics, while non-social odors were household spices. Conspecific odor stimuli are ethologically-relevant and have a high degree of overlapping features compared to non-social household spices. Various retention intervals (5 min, 20 min, 1h, 24h, or 48 h) were used between study and test phases, each with a unique odor pair, to assess changes in novelty preference over time. Consistent with findings in other paradigms, modalities, and species, we found that HC lesions yielded no significant recognition memory deficits. In contrast, PER lesions caused significant deficits for social odor recognition memory at long retention intervals, demonstrating a critical role for PER in long-term memory for social odors. PER lesions had no effect on memory for non-social odors. The results are consistent with a general role for PER in long-term recognition memory for stimuli that have a high degree of overlapping features, which must be distinguished by conjunctive representations.