Moderately dysphoric mothers behave more positively with their infants after completing the BDI

To determine whether mildly and moderately dysphoric adolescent mothers display infantized facial and vocal behaviors, 21 nondysphoric mothers and 32 dysphoric (16 mildly and 16 moderately/severely dysphoric) mothers were videotaped during face-to-face interactions with their 4-month-old infants. Mildly dysphoric mothers showed less positive facial expressions and less animated/exaggerated vocal expressions. The moderately/severely dysphoric mothers, however, did not differ from nondysphoric mothers in their display of facial and vocal behaviors. These mothers with higher Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores may have become concerned about their many symptoms affecting their interactions and tried to compensate for this during their interactions. A second study was conducted to determine whether completing the BDI before interactions positively affected the moderately/severely dysphoric mothers' behavior. Moderately/severely dysphoric mothers (N=24) and mildly dysphoric mothers (N=24) were given the Beck Depression Inventory either before or after their face-to-face interactions with their 4-month-old infants. Moderately/severely dysphoric mothers who were given the BDI before their interactions showed more positive behavior than mothers given the BDI after their interactions. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Fathers' caregiving in low-income African–American and Hispanic–American families

The present study assessed fathers' and mothers' relative involvement in infant caregiving tasks in 34 low-income African–American and Hispanic–American families. Analysis showed that involvement in childcare differed as a function of the gender of the parent. Fathers spent one half the time mothers did in caregiving. However, fathers' and mothers' participation in caregiving did not vary as a function of ethnic group. African–American parents reported to have received more family support than Hispanic–American parents. Although relationships were noted between age, income, education, length of marriage, social support, and involvement in infant caregiving, these sociodemographic variables did not predict parents' participation in childcare. The results are discussed in relation to the preconceived notion that low-income, minority fathers are ‘uninvolved’. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of prior choices on current choice

Three pigeons chose between random-interval (RI) and tandem, continuous-reinforcement, fixed-interval (crf-FI) reinforcement schedules by pecking either of two keys. As long as a pigeon pecked on the RI key, both keys remained available. If a pigeon pecked on the crf-FI key, then the RI key became unavailable and the crf-FI timer began to time out. With this procedure, once the RI key was initially pecked, the prospective value of both alternatives remained constant regardless of time spent pecking on the RI key without reinforcement (RI waiting time). Despite this constancy, the rate at which pigeons switched from the RI to the crf-FI decreased sharply as RI waiting time increased. That is, prior choices influenced current choice-an exercise effect. It is argued that such influence (independent of reinforcement contingencies) may serve as a sunk-cost commitment device in self-control situations. In a second experiment, extinction was programmed if RI waiting time exceeded a certain value. Rate of switching to the crf-FI first decreased and then increased as the extinction point approached, showing sensitivity to both prior choices and reinforcement contingencies. In a third experiment, crf-FI availability was limited to a brief window during the RI waiting time. When constrained in this way, switching occurred at a high rate regardless of when, during the RI waiting time, the crf-FI became available.     

The relation of self-esteem variability to emotion variability, mood, personality traits, and depressive tendencies

The relation of self-esteem variability to personality, mood, and behavior was investigated. Self-esteem variability was measured by calculating the standard deviation of self-ratings made during a week of experience-sampling. Participants high in self-esteem variability were self-conscious, socially anxious, and avoidant of social contexts. Self-esteem variability was partially independent of the conceptually similar trait of affect-intensity. The contributions of the study to work on self-esteem stability are discussed.     

Adolescents' academic expectations and achievement

Previous research has indicated that adolescents' relationships with their mother influence their academic expectations and achievement. Substance use has also been found to have a strong influence on academic expectations and achievement. In the present study, 80 high school seniors from middle to upper socioeconomic status families completed questionnaires on behavioral and psychological aspects of adolescent life. Academic expectations were found to be highly correlated with academic achievement (r = .60). A stepwise regression analysis revealed that relationship with mother, academic achievement, and alcohol use accounted for 56% of the total variance in academic expectations. Stepwise regression on academic achievement revealed that cocaine use, marijuana use, and academic expectations accounted for 48% of the total variance.     

When All Is Still Concealed: Are We Closer to Understanding the Mechanisms Underlying Evaluative Conditioning?

Fulcher and Hammerl's (2001) important exploration of the role of contingency awareness in evaluative conditioning (EC) raises a lot of issues for discussion: (1) what boundaries, if any, exist between EC and affective learning paradigms?; (2) if EC does occur without awareness does this mean it is nonpropositional learning?; (3) is EC driven by stimulus-response (S-R), rather than stimulus-stimulus (S-S), associations and if so should it then surprise us that contingency awareness is not important?; and (4) if S-R associations are at the heart of EC, should we automatically assume EC is part of a different learning mechanism to autonomic Pavlovian conditioning (Field, 2000a, 2000b)? This article, after a critical review of Fulcher and Hammerl's work, discusses these issues with reference to what can be realistically inferred about the mechanisms underlying EC.     

Maternal self‐perceptions and reactions to infant crying among intrusive and withdrawn depressed mothers

This study compared intrusive (N =15) and withdrawn (N = 10) mothers' ratings of their own interaction styles with their infants and the behaviors of videotaped models of intrusive and withdrawn mothers. Withdrawn mothers rated themselves as less withdrawn than the model withdrawn mother. Intrusive mothers viewed themselves as more intrusive than the model intrusive mother. Both groups viewed their own infants as more outgoing than the infants of the model intrusive and withdrawn mothers. The withdrawn mothers reported feeling more distressed when they observed an infant (of an intrusive or withdrawn mother) crying, suggesting that they feel more empathy than the intrusive mothers. © 2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

The effect of restraint beliefs on alcohol-seeking behavior

Individuals who believe that they have high levels of restraint over motivated behaviors such as cigarette smoking are, paradoxically, more likely to engage in those behaviors when tempted (Nordgren, Van Harreveld, & Van Der Pligt, 2009). Our aim was to experimentally manipulate heavy drinkers' beliefs about their drinking restraint to examine the effect on drinking behavior. Sixty heavy drinkers completed an implicit association test and a stop-signal task before receiving bogus feedback on their task performance that indicated that they had either high or low levels of drinking restraint. Participants then completed a bogus taste test in which they were able to consume beer and a soft drink. Results indicated that the group falsely led to believe that they had a high level of drinking restraint subsequently consumed more beer than the group led to believe that they had a low level of drinking restraint. This study demonstrates that beliefs about drinking restraint can influence drinking behavior, in that individuals who overestimate their control over drinking are at greater risk of drinking to excess when exposed to tempting situations.     

Organizational Citizenship Behavior,Job Attitudes,and the Psychological Contract

Previous research has shown a positive relationship between job satisfaction and various dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior. These studies, however, have focused almost exclusively on civilian sector organizations. While insight gained from these studies is instructive, it remains to be seen if these relationships also exist in the context of military organizations. The relationships between job satisfaction as well as cynicism (as moderated by psychological contracts) with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) are explored. Data were collected from military officers (n = 151) attending a 10-month professional military education school. As an improvement over other similar studies, control measures were incorporated to address potential confounds associated with self-reported attitudes. Results showed job satisfaction was a strong predictor of OCB, cynicism was negatively related to the altruism dimension of OCB, and the relationship between cynicism and the altruism dimension of organizational citizenship behavior was moderated such that the relationship was stronger when there were high levels of perceived psychological contract support than when there were low levels of support.