Preparing for retirement: how self-efficacy and resource threats contribute to retirees’ satisfaction,depression, and losses

The resource-based dynamic perspective has been applied in this study to explore retirees’ satisfaction, depression, and actual loss of resources. A three-wave design with Spanish workers who were in transition to retirement (N = 286) was used with the aim of investigating correlations between pre-retirement variables and post-retirement well-being. Participants were working at Time 1 and Time 2 but at Time 3, they had retired in the past year. Individual attributes (age), access to resources (life satisfaction and depression), situational characteristics (job stress, job tenure, and retirement transition quality), and psychological disposition (general self-efficacy and positive retirement expectations) at the first wave, correlated with the threat of loss at the second wave. Moreover, these predictors explained how people adjust to retirement at the third wave, assessed both directly (actual loss of resources) and indirectly (satisfaction with retirement and depression), via their effects on Time 2 variables. The results revealed that threat of loss had a positive relationship on loss of resources after retirement, and also both on retirement satisfaction and depression after retirement. Hence, this suggested several avenues for intervention targeting expectations and, in turn, increasing retirees’ well-being, which are discussed.     

Contingency, imitation, and affect sharing: Foundations of infants' social awareness

Predictions about the role of contingency, imitation, and affect sharing in the development of social awareness were tested in infants during natural, imitative, and yoked conditions with their mothers at 5 and 13 weeks of age. Results showed that at both ages, infants of highly attuned mothers gazed, smiled, and vocalized positively more during the natural than during the imitative and yoked conditions, whereas they increased negative vocalizations during the yoked conditions. In contrast, infants of less attuned mothers did not differentiate between the conditions, except at 13 weeks when these infants increased their gazes during the imitative condition. Whereas contingency and imitation draw infant attention to conspecifics, affective communication appears to lay the foundation for infants' social awareness.     

Alcohol self-administration by rats in the presence of a tangible object

The authors used the sucrose-substitution procedure to train operant self-administration of a 10% alcohol solution in 8 Long-Evans rats. After they established stable responding, they began a 10-session baseline. A 10-session experimental phase followed the baseline phase. During the experimental phase, the authors placed a large glass marble in the center of the experimental chambers before self-administration sessions. The presence of the marble decreased the rats' responding and alcohol intake significantly. The authors discussed the results in terms of distraction and the effects of concurrently available reinforcers on alcohol self-administration.     

Function transformation without reinforcement

In studies of function transformation, participants initially are taught to match stimuli in the presence of a contextual cue, X; the stimuli to be matched bear some formal relation to each other, for example, a relation of opposition or difference. In a second phase, the participants are taught to match arbitrary stimuli (say, A and B) in the presence of X. In a final test, A often displays behavioral functions that differ from those of B, and can be predicted from the nature of the relation associated with X in the initial training phase. Here we report function-transformation effects in the absence of selection responses and of their reinforcers. In three experiments with college students, exposure to relations of difference or identity modified the responses given to later stimuli. In Experiment 1, responses to a test stimulus A varied depending on preexposure to pairs of colors that were distinct from A but exemplified relations of difference or identity. In Experiment 2, a stimulus A acquired distinct functions, depending on its previous pairing with a contextual cue X that had itself been paired with identity or difference among colors. Experiment 3 confirmed the results of Experiment 2 with a modified design. Our data are consistent with the notion that relations of identity or difference can serve as stimuli for Pavlovian processes, and, in compound with other cues, produce apparent function-transformation effects.     

Detailed analysis of the male copulatory motor pattern in mammals: hormonal bases

Data obtained, using a polygraphic technique, on the characteristics of the motor and genital copulatory responses of male rabbits, rats, mice, hamsters, and guinea pigs are reviewed. This methodology provided detailed information, not accessible to other analyses, on the frequency and dynamic organization of copulatory pelvic thrusting trains of the species studied. This comparative analysis showed that: (1) The male rat may display two types of ejaculatory responses, differing in the dynamic organization of the pelvic thrusting train, and in the duration of the intravaginal thrusting period preceding ejaculation. (2) In the guinea pigs and small rodents, but not in rabbits, pelvic thrusting at ejaculatory responses persists during intromission, and a period of fast intravaginal thrusting is associated with ejaculation. (3) The motor copulatory pattern of the rabbit, but not of the rat, hamster, or guinea pig, is affected by castration and hormone treatment, suggesting that, in rabbits, androgen acts both on motivation and on the spinal neural systems related to copulation.     

Sustained and transient modulation of performance induced by emotional picture viewing

We investigated how viewing task-irrelevant emotional pictures affects the performance of a subsequent nonemotional visual detection task. Subjects performed target-detection trials following the offset of individual unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral pictures. Sustained interference occurred when subjects viewed unpleasant pictures (mutilated bodies) in a sequential, "blocked" fashion. Such slowing down of reaction time appeared to build up with time, consistent with the instatement of a defensive emotional state. With a randomized picture presentation, only a transient interference effect was observed, consistent with increased attentional demands during the processing of unpleasant pictures. During blocked presentation of affiliative pleasant pictures, reaction times were faster, suggesting the activation of appetitive motivational systems. Ultimately, both attentional and motivational systems are intricately tied in the brain and, together, determine behavior.     

Cognitive organization of favorable and unfavorable beliefs about performing a behavior

Intentions to perform behaviors are influenced by beliefs about their consequences, but researchers have not addressed how such beliefs are cognitively organized. In 3 experiments, the authors tested the hypothesis that beliefs are organized according to whether they are favorable or unfavorable in regard to performing a behavior. In Experiment 1, a group of U.S. students first read a list of beliefs favorable and unfavorable to going to a vacation resort and then listed their beliefs about condom use. In Experiment 2, another group of U.S. students listed their beliefs about condom use. In Experiment 3, a 3rd group of U.S. students listed their beliefs about a novel behavior (asking the experimenter for candy). The results of all 3 experiments were consistent with the hypothesis that people cognitively organize their beliefs according to whether they are favorable or unfavorable to the behavior in question.     

Learning from within: Therapists' actions in daily clinical practice

The integration of theories and techniques is part of family therapists' daily practice, raising the need to understand which resources are used in this professional's clinical actions. Our aim is to reflect on the use of theoretical and technical resources by family therapists in their daily practice. We developed an inquiry process inspired by collaborative action research and social constructionism. Couple and family therapy sessions were conducted by two family therapists, and we developed subsequent dialogs with them focused on describing theoretical and technical inspirations for their actions. Next, we named four categories of actions in this process: exploratory actions, actions for the construction of relational visions, actions for the construction of communication, and actions for family orientation. The therapists-participants referred to many theoretical and technical resources that inspired their practice. For them, the choice of using one or another resource was based on the demands of the interactive moment, which involves their relational and embodied responses to what was experienced in the sessions. We argue that epistemological coherence is not something that guides the therapist's practice a priori, but something that can be achieved by talking about and reflecting on their actions. This article can contribute to clinical practice and training in family therapy by presenting an interesting reflexive process that can be useful to enhance practice in couple and family therapy (FAPESP, Process n. 2015/21316–1).     

Examining the influence of group diversity on the functioning of community-based participatory research partnerships: A mixed methods study

Public health has endorsed the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) to address health inequities involving diverse and marginalized communities. However, few studies have examined how group diversity among members of CBPR partnerships influenced how well the partnerships achieve their goals of addressing health inequities through equitable collaboration. We conducted secondary, convergent, mixed methods analysis to (1) evaluate the association between group diversity and participatory decision-making within CBPR partnerships, and (2) identify the perceived characteristics, benefits, and challenges of group diversity within CBPR partnerships. Using data from a cross-site study of federally funded CBPR partnerships, we analyzed and integrated data from surveys of 163 partnerships (n = 448 partners) and seven in-depth case study interviews (n = 55 partners). Quantitatively, none of the measured characteristics of group diversity was associated with participatory decision-making within the partnerships. Qualitatively, we found that partnerships mainly benefited from membership differences in functional characteristics (e.g., skillset) but faced challenges from membership differences in sociocultural characteristics (e.g., gender and race). The integrated findings suggest the need to further understand how emergent group characteristics and how practices that engage in group diversity contribute to collective functioning of the partnerships. Attention to this area can help promote health equity achievements of CBPR partnerships.