Acquisition of a simple running response as a function of partial and continuous schedules of reinforcement

The Psychological Record -     

The effects of social vigilantism and masculine honor beliefs on perceptions of confrontation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Varying opinions about the COVID-19 pandemic inspire different behaviors (e.g., mask-wearing), and confrontation may result between people with differing viewpoints. Individual differences associated with belief superiority (e.g., Social Vigilantism; SV) and/or pride (e.g., Masculine Honor Beliefs; MHB) likely related to third-person perceptions of pandemic confrontations. In this study (N = 237; US sample), we used vignettes in a 2 (Mask: Yes/No) ×  2(Confrontation Response: Vocal Defense/Walked Away) between-groups design to examine how SV and MHB predict perceptions of (1) responses to public confrontation about (not) wearing a mask and (2) the person being confronted. In general, mask-wearing and walking away from confrontation were perceived more positively. Higher SV was associated with more positive perceptions of seemingly morally-justified responses to confrontation (e.g., walking away when confronted for not wearing a mask, vocally defending oneself when confronted for wearing a mask). Contrarily, higher MHB were associated with more positive perceptions of non-mask-wearing. This research provides insight about how individual differences in SV and MHB relate to nuances in pandemic confrontations, and responses to confrontations, about (non)mask-wearing.     

Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology: Clerical Errors Corrected but Inferences Unchanged

The Yu et al. (1997) study on correlates of mean score on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) contained some clerical errors that are corrected here. The findings and associated inferences are basically the same after making these corrections as they were before. Academically stronger clinical psychology programs have graduates who tend to score higher on the EPPP. An additional analysis using only professional schools revealed that programs approved by the American Psychological Association and those that are not freestanding tend to produce graduates with higher scores.     

“Cyber” Barth

This article describes a study of the theology of Karl Barth carried out by four students at Memphis Theological Seminary who used the Internet and e-mail in addition to other means for learning. Dr. Donald K. McKim taught the class and here describes the way in which the class was structured, how students used the World Wide Web, a Newsgroup in which students participated, and their use of e-mail to amplify discussion. McKim indicates the advantage of using these resources which introduced students to a “new world” of media and unique resources, linked them with others throughout the world who also had an interest in Barth, and provided an enhanced means of communication for the students with each other and with the professor. He also provides further reflections about the experience in relation to seminary teaching.     

Visualizing the perisaccadic shift of spatiotopic coordinates

A point light source flickering on and off during a horizontal saccade projects a horizontal array onto the retina. The apparent visual direction of the tail end of the perceived (phantom) array reflects the amount of perisaccadic shift of spatiotopic coordinates that has been completed by the end of the saccade. Four men, saccading 8° to the right across a flashing light, judged the horizontal visual direction of the left (tail) end of the phantom array relative to the left end of a standard 8° array that had projected an image onto the retina before the saccade began. On average, the left ends appeared to be aligned when the last flash in the phantom array was imaged on the retina 7.4° to the right of the image of the left end of the standard array. This result implies that the shift of spatiotopic coordinates is virtually complete by the end of the saccade.     

Effects of Alcohol on Rotary Pursuit Performance: A Gender Comparison

The Psychological Record - For 6 days, 10 male and 10 female social drinkers performed a rotary pursuit task six times across each day under both placebo and alcohol-intoxicated conditions....     

Erikson's “inner space”: Where art and religion converge

This essay explores ways in which Erik H. Erikson's interests in art and religion converge in his psychology of religion. By associating Erikson'sYoung Man Luther with portraiture and his essays on “womanhood and the inner space” with still life, the author employs artistic genres to resituate the interpretation of Erikson's key texts on religion. By way of Erikson's image of the “inner space,” connections are drawn betweenYoung Man Luther and his essays on womanhood. His late essay on Jesus is also linked to the earlier “inner space” essays, demonstrating that a central feature of Erikson's psychology of religion is its reformulation of traditional psychoanalytic theory of ritual.     

Experimental evaluation of a modular approach to mobilizing antitobacco influences of peers and parents

The experimental evaluation of two components of a community intervention to prevent adolescent tobacco use are described. Youth antitobacco activities (e.g., peer quizzes, sidewalk art, poster and T-shirt giveaways, etc.) and family communications activities (pamphlets to parents and student quizzes of parents) were evaluated in two time-series experiments, each of which was conducted in two experimental and one control community. Students in Grades 6 and 8 and their parents were assessed in a series of four phone surveys in the first experiment and six phone surveys in the second. Implementation of the youth antitobacco and family communications activities led to significantly greater exposure of young people to antitobacco information. They led to increases in parent and youth knowledge about tobacco use and more negative attitudes toward tobacco. In Experiment 2, youths in intervention communities had significantly lower rated intentions to smoke. The findings suggest the value of a modular approach to community interventions for influencing the social context relevant to the onset of adolescent tobacco use.     

The relationship between masculine gender role stress and psychological adjustment: A question of construct validity?

Masculine gender role stress is a theoretical construct that describes the stress created in men when they feel they are not meeting society's expectations for masculinity, or when the situation forces men to act in feminine-typed ways. The stress produced by these feelings or actions are thought to be related to negative psychological outcomes for men, but should be unrelated to well-being for women. The present study investigated the validity of the masculine gender role stress construct, especially with regard to the assumption that masculine gender role stress is related to negative psychological outcomes for men more than for women. Participants were a group of mostly Caucasian undergraduates. Results indicated that masculine gender role stress was related to depression, hostility, and anxiety, but to the same degree for both men and women. These findings suggest that, if MGRS is a valid construct, then researchers need to explore other ways in which this type of stress can negatively affect men, but not women.     

Frame-critical policy analysis and frame-reflective policy practice

Our primary purpose in this article is to explore some of the issues, practical and conceptual, that arise in the attempt to study and cope with public policy controversies. We have organized the article into four sections. The first considers what problems a frame-critical approach seeks to address and explores, in particular, why social science methods seem unable to contribute to the resolution of public controversies. The second section asks what “frames” are and why they are critical to the study of controversy. Section three gives an overview of the elements in a frame-critical policy analysis and of the relationships between it and frame-reflective policy practice. In conclusion, section four examines the main issues that need to be addressed in analyzing and coping with policy controversies.