Maternal aggression toward infanticidal males of different social status in wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus)

Maternal aggression was examined in wild female mice (Mus musculus domesticus) derived from animals trapped in Alberta, Canada. Lactating females were tested for their behavior toward intruder males during the time of postpartum estrus while housed in a two-cage apparatus containing a defensible nest area. Prior to being used as intruders, sexually naive males were screened for their behavior toward a newborn pup (83% exhibited infanticide). Only infanticidal males were then housed in pairs and allowed to establish a dominance hierarchy. Dominance status was further verified by a urine marking test. The dominant and subordinate infanticidal males were then placed into a lactating female's cage and observed for 1 hr. The test was terminated immediately when a male began to attack the pups. Lactating females attacked the males in both groups, but subordinate males received more intense attacks than dominant males. Dominant males elicited significantly more fear/defense behavior than subordinate intruders. All of the dominant males and only one submissive male attacked the pups. Females were thus successful in blocking infanticide only by infanticidal subordinate males. Since females do not persist in attacking males with high fighting ability, one function of maternal aggression could be to assess the fighting, and resource holding, potential of a future mate. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Antipredator behavior of Swiss-Webster mice in a visible burrow system

Swiss-Webster mice living in a visible burrow system (VBS) reacted to presentation of a live cat in the surface area of the VBS by retreat to the burrows and reductions in nondefensive behaviors such as eating and drinking. Live eat-exposed subjects remained in the burrows 14 hr or more, while subjects exposed to a toy (plush) cat prior to live cat exposure reemerged almost immediately and made many contacts with the toy cat. However, subjects exposed first to the cat and later to a toy cat showed intermediate surface reemergence times and cat contacts during toy cat tests, indicating strong sensitization effects of prior live cat exposure. Previous studies indicated that rats in this situation show retreat to the burrows, surface avoidance, and reduction in nondefensive behaviors. The mouse pattern was similar, with the notable exception that in the first 5min block after cat presentation, mice rapidly alternated retreat to the burrow chambers with reappearance in the tunnel segment near the surface, to scan the surface visually and sniff. Movement during this time block involved a stretch attend posture characteristic also of risk assessment activities in rats. Such visual and olfactory inspection of the cat is not seen in rats in the VBS. This difference may be related to the finding that rats, but not mice, emit ultrasonic “alarm cries” during and after cat exposure. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Hostility, the metabolic syndrome, and incident coronary heart disease.

This invesgation examined the impact of hostility and the metabolic syndrome on coronary heart disease (CHD) using prospective data from the Normative Aging Study. Seven hundred seventy-four older, unmedicated men free of cardiovascular disease were included in the study. The total Cook-Medley Hostility (Ho) Scale score, anthropometric data, serum lipids, fasting insulin concentrations, blood pressure, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and total dietary calories were used to predict incident CHD during a 3-year follow-up interval. Multivariate analysis indicated that only Ho positively predicted and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level negatively predicted incident CHD. Ho's effects on CHD may be mediated though mechanisms other than factors that constitute the metabolic syndrome.     

Human agency and associative learning: Pavlovian principles govern social process in causal relationship detection

Estimates of a worker's causal relationship (CR) to production obeyed associative principles, despite the participants' a priori beliefs that workers are responsible or "at cause" for production. In three experiments, social analogues of conditioned stimuli (workers) and unconditioned stimuli (company production information) were manipulated in familiar Pavlovian paradigms. The findings included (1) CR acquisition, (2) unconditioned stimulus-intensity effects, and (3) CR blocking. The research plan employed an approach that Neal Miller (1959) termed "extension of liberalized S-R theory" and drew on the Rescorla-Wagner model to integrate the experimental results, to illuminate the empirical data of social attribution research, and to guide the study of causal relationship detection using social stimuli.     

An exploratory study of social support, distress, and life disruption among low-income Hispanic women under treatment for early stage breast cancer.

Relationships between distress and perceived availability of social support were examined in 51 Hispanic women being treated for early stage breast cancer. Distress and different types (emotional, instrumental) and sources (spouse, women family members, other family members, friends) of support were measured at presurgery, postsurgery, and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Emotional support from friends and instrumental support from spouse at presurgery predicted lower distress postsurgery. No other prospective benefits of perceived support emerged. Distress at several time points predicted erosion of subsequent support, particularly instrumental support from women in the family. In contrast to the adverse effects of distress (and independent of them), illness-related disruption of recreational and social activities at 6 months elicited greater support at 12 months.