Preventing antisocial behavior in the schools

Multiple correlates and determinants of antisocial behavior within the home, community, and school are reviewed. Due to the school's pivotal role in our society, an emphasis is placed on how our schools contribute to antisocial behavior, and what educators can do to prevent anti-social behavior and related attendance problems. A variety of contextual factors and setting events within our schools appear to be major contributors to antisocial behavior, and some of the same factors identified within the schools also have been identified within the home. These setting events, rather than quick restrictive fixes, must be given more attention if we are to provide safe school environments-environments that durably prevent antisocial behavior and related attendance problems.     

An evaluation of differential prediction of WIAT achievement scores from WISC-III FSIQ across ethnic and gender groups

This study examines differential prediction of WIAT achievement scores based on WISC-III FSIQ in white as compared with African American and Hispanic children, and in females as compared with males. A procedure which allows simultaneous comparisons of slopes and intercepts across groups is employed. The results are consistent with previous research findings in supporting the general absence of bias in predicting achievement from IQ.     

The effects of cocaine on behavior maintained by timeout from avoidance.

Rats were trained on concurrent schedules under which responses on one lever postponed shock (avoidance) and responses on the other lever produced brief (2-min) periods of signaled timeout from avoidance. For 6 rats, timeout from avoidance was programmed on a variable-interval 45-s schedule that generally resulted in rates that were lower than those on the avoidance lever. For another 6 rats, timeout was arranged on a variable-ratio 15 schedule that produced higher baseline rates. Cocaine (3 to 40 mg/kg) produced large, dose-dependent increases in behavior maintained by timeout in both groups of rats. Avoidance responding was also generally increased by cocaine, but the increases were of lesser magnitude. Increases in response rates were seen across a broad range of doses on behavior maintained by either interval or ratio schedules, an outcome that was unexpected on the basis of most studies of cocaine on food-maintained behavior. These results were similar to those of previous studies of the effects of amphetamine on behavior maintained by timeout from avoidance and suggest that stimulant drugs affect behavior maintained under a shock-postponement schedule differently than they affect behavior maintained by timeout from avoidance.     

Origin and history of the Thematic Apperception Test images

The origin and history of each of the images appearing on the 1943/1971 edition of the Thematic Apperception Test is presented. This information corrects and supplements that provided by Murray (1943/1971) in the test manual. Authorship of the test, including the contributions of Christiana Morgan, is discussed. The material presented expands the historical record and may serve as an aid in test interpretation.     

Physicians' values and physician-value neutrality

For years articles have decried the lack of empathy in physicians' relationships with patients. In addition to being empathetic, physicians are called upon to assume the posture of value neutrality, i.e., not imposing one's values when dealing with patients. Empathy is clearly an expression of deeply held values; even the language used to define it is value-laden. Physicians are consistently called upon to exhibit traits which are expressions of their underlying values. However, if proponents of value-neutrality are to be taken literally one must not impose any of one's values on one's patients. But then one wonders how empathy could ever be expressed; further, it is hard to imagine what a truly value neutral physician would be like. It is time we recognize that any relationship between two persons requires the expression of values from both parties. These values help shape that relationship and define its further history. Physicians are not excluded from this process just because they consider themselves professionals. Divulging personal values to patients is both more honest and more in keeping with the concepts of justice, beneficence, non maleficence, and autonomy than to feign value-neutrality. A presentation of some type statement of values is timely and would give patients an idea of where a physician stands on a myriad of issues. Rather than being value-neutral, value non-neutrality seems a more right and reasonable posture for physicians to assume.     

Biasing the pacemaker in the behavioral theory of timing

In the behavioral theory of timing, pacemaker rate is determined by overall rate of reinforcement. A two-alternative free-operant psychophysical procedure was employed to investigate whether pacemaker period was also sensitive to the differential rate of reinforcement. Responding on a left key during the first 25 s and on a right key during the second 25 s of a 50-s trial was reinforced at variable intervals, and variable-interval schedule values during the two halves of the trials were varied systematically. Responding on the right key during the first 25 s and on the left key during the second 25 s was not reinforced. Estimates of pacemaker period were derived from fits of a function predicted by the behavioral theory of timing to right-key response proportions in consecutive 5-s bins of the 50-s trial. Estimates of pacemaker period were shortest when the differential reinforcer rate most strongly favored right-key responses, and were longest when the differential reinforcer rate most strongly favored left-key responses. The results were consistent with the conclusion that pacemaker rate is influenced by relative reinforcer rate.     

To pray or not to pray: Reflections on the intersection of prayer and medicine

Recent medical studies documenting the influence of prayer in our physical lives challenge mainstream Christians to rethink their ideas and practice of prayer. A new model of prayer questions dysfunctional images of prayer based on 1) the doctrine of divine omnipotence, 2) the rewards-punishments notion of health and illness, and 3) linear notions of the power of prayer. Relational, holistic, and multidimensional images of God, human existence, and the effects of prayer provide the basis for a constructive theology of prayer. Ironically, the fact that prayer is not omnipotent makes it possible to practice prayer in a technological context.     

Achieving Coordination in Prehension: Joint Freezing and Postural Contributions

The focus of the present study was on the intersegmental relationships that emerge when both task and oganismic constraints are imposed upon the coordination system. Seven right-handed subjects were required to reach and grasp a cup (hand transport phase) and place it on a designated target (cup transport phase), using either their preferred or nonpreferred hand. The kinematics of the movement were examined as a function of task (grasping a full cup versus grasping an empty one) and organismic (preferred or nonpreferred hand) constraints. During the hand transport phase, a task constraint effect was revealed through an increase in the low-velocity phase for the full cup condition. This constraint coexisted with a decrease in angular motion of the shoulder and elbow joints, indicating subjects reduced the number of variables to be independently controlled in the final homing-in stage of the movement. Accompanying this decrease in angular change was an increase in the displacement of the trunk. During the cup transport phase, the trunk was shown to contribute significantly more to the movement in the full cup condition and for the left hand movements, thereby increasing the stability of the movement system. These findings are in agreement with Bernstein's (1967) notion of fixating parts of the body as an initial solution to a movement problem, and they lend support to the concept of a proximodistal organization of coordination.     

A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Substantive and Contextual Mediation Tactics1

The effectiveness of three mediation tactics was compared in two laboratory studies. It was hypothesized that a content mediation procedure which involved identifying the priorities of both parties and suggesting a trade-off of low for high priority issues would be most effective in helping to resolve the dispute, followed by an issue identification mediation procedure in which priorities were identified but no suggestions were made. A positive framing mediation procedure in which the benefits of a negotiated settlement were emphasized was expected to be somewhat less effective. In Study 1, 64 students played the role of company negotiator and interacted with a programmed citizen group negotiator. All three mediation tactics produced more satisfactory outcomes (higher joint payoffs) than did a no-mediation condition. In Study 2, 46 pairs of students negotiated with one another and received content mediation, issue identification mediation, positive framing mediation, or no mediation. Negotiators receiving content mediation achieved more satisfactory outcomes (higher joint profits) than did negotiators in the other 3 conditions. Results are discussed in terms of a contingency model of mediation effectiveness.     

Ethnic and Gender Variations in the Sources of Information Used to Evaluate Performance in the Exercise Setting1

The purpose of this study was to identify ethnic and gender differences in the types of information Anglo and Hispanic exercisers use in self-evaluation. University students in exercise classes rated the importance of norm-referenced and self-referenced sources used in self-evaluation of performance. Results showed that males rated norm-referenced sources as more important to self-evaluation, while females rated self-referenced sources as most important. A gender by ethnicity interaction showed that Anglos, especially Anglo males, preferred norm-referenced sources, while Hispanics preferred self-referenced sources. Provided with this information, instructors could more effectively motivate exercise participants.