Clamped Corticosterone (B) Reveals the Effect of Endogenous B on Both Facilitated Responsivity to Acute Restraint and Metabolic Responses to Chronic Stress

To determine the effects of both corticosterone (B) and chronic stressors on acute ACTH responses to restraint, young male rats were exposed to streptozotocin-induced diabetes, cold (5-7 degreesC) or intracerebroventricular (icv) neuropeptide Y (NPY) for 5 d and then exposed to restraint within 2 h after lights on. Two groups of rats were studied: intact and adrenalectomized replaced with B pellets that maintained plasma B in the normal mean 24-h range of intact rats. In addition to ACTH and B responses to restraint on d 5, body weight, food intake, fat depots, glucose and other hormones were measured to determine the role of stress-induced elevations in B on energy balance. ACTH responses to restraint were normal in intact rats subjected to diabetes or cold. By contrast, there was no ACTH or B response to restraint in NPY-infused intact rats. All 3 groups of chronically stimulated adrenalectomized rats with clamped B had facilitated ACTH responses to restraint compared to their treatment controls. Overall food intake increased in all groups of stressed rats; however, augmented intake occurred only during the light in intact rats and equally in the light and dark in B-clamped rats. White adipose depot weights were decreased by both diabetes and cold and increased by NPY in intact rats; the decreases with cold and increases with NPY were both blunted and changes in fat stores were not significant in adrenalectomized, B-clamped rats. We conclude that: 1. diabetes- and cold-induced facilitation of restraint-induced afferent input to hypothalamic control of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is opposed in intact rats by the elevated feedback signal of B secretion; 2. NPY does not induce facilitation of afferent stress pathways; 3. chronic stimulation of the HPA axis induces acute hyperresponsiveness of hypothalamic neurons to restraint provided that the afferent input of this acute stimulus is not prevented by B feedback; 4. stimulus-induced elevations in B secretion result in day-time feeding; 5. insensitivity of both caloric efficiency and white fat stores to chronic stress in adrenalectomized, B-clamped rats results from loss of normally variable B levels.     

ETUDE COMPARATIVE DE L'IMAGE DE LA PSYCHOLOGIE CHEZ LES ETUDIANTS EN PSYCHOLOGIE,BELGES, ESPAGNOLS,FRANCAIS, MEXICAINS ET QUEBECOIS*

1373 psychology students from Barcelona (Spain), Liège (Belgium), Lille (France), Mexico city (Mexico) and Montréal (Canada) responded to a questionnaire dealing with their image of the discipline at various points in their university career. The students were asked to designate the authors they felt to be the most important as well as their preferences in regard to various areas and tendencies in psychology. The results show more agreement than could have been expected considering the cultural diversity and the great distance among the groups examined. Relevant differences from the other universities studied were found only with the Mexican students.     

Equating tasks and sustaining attention in children and adults: the methodological and theoretical utility of d' matching

The present study develops a method to create task equivalency for children and adults in vigilance research. Experiment 1 employed the signal detection index of perceptual sensitivity (d') to calibrate vigilance tasks for 32 children (ages 7-8) and 32 adults. The results of Experiment 1 suggest that task equivalency across groups can be attained, and a vigilance decrement was observed for children. In Experiment 2, the task parameter of event rate was manipulated across two vigils. Again, 32 children (ages 7-8) and 32 adults participated. The results suggest that a reverse event rate effect emerged for both children and adults. In addition, developmental differences in response to the event rate manipulation and with respect to the vigilance decrement emerged: Children benefited less from the manipulation and were more likely to demonstrate a vigilance decrement than were adults. No developmental differences emerged for the sensitivity decrement. The results are explained with reference to how task demands interact with participant arousal, and implications for development and for future research are discussed.     

Malleability of social impressions of hyperactive children

The role of adults' social cognitions in mediating judgments of hyperactive children's medicationrelated behavior change was explored. Two hundred eightyeight undergraduates observed two videotaped excerpts of a hyperactive target boy playing a group game with two peers. Each target was taking either methylphenidate (0.6 mg/kg) during both excerpts, placebo during both excerpts, methylphenidate first followed by placebo, or placebo first followed by methylphenidate. Adults' cumulative social evaluations of the child were assessed after they viewed both video segments. Results indicated that observers combined their perceptions of the two behavior samples into composite impressions using an equalweight averaging algorithm. Even for children whose behavior improved, adults' ratings of undercontrolled behaviors continued to meet or, in some cases exceed, research cutoff scores used to identify hyperactive children. The findings suggest that the actual behaviors of children with attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) play a more influential role in shaping interpersonal impressions than do perceiver socialcognitive processes such as primacy, recency, or integration biases.This project was supported in part by a UC Regents' Dissertation fellowship to Douglas A. Granger while at the University of California at Irvine. We acknowledge Tom Crawford and Karen Rook for their helpful comments at formative stages of this project, and support from the UCLA Fernald Child Study Center and Program in Psychoneuroimmunology. We thank behavior observers Leslie Klein, Jeanne Tsai, and Dawn Rowland, and data managers Pam Ajang and Scott Gutentag. A preliminary report of this study was presented at the 1991 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.     

Anxiety and chronic couple relationship stress moderate adrenocortical response to couple interaction in expectant parents

The study examines whether anxiety or chronic relationship stress alter the way that couple conflict affects cortisol levels for women and men during the transition to parenthood. Saliva samples, assayed for cortisol, were collected before and after couple interaction from 128 heterosexual couples expecting their first child. Confirming prior research, expectant mothers had higher cortisol levels than their spouses, and gestational age was linked to women's cortisol level. Negativity during couple interaction was associated with greater cortisol reactivity for men, but not women. Tests of moderation indicated little relation between negativity and cortisol recovery for individuals with a low level of anxiety or little history of chronic arguing with the partner. However, among individuals with elevated levels of either of these two factors, negativity was linked to less cortisol recovery for men, but more cortisol recovery for women. Consistent results were also found for the relation between low warmth in the couple interaction and both reactivity and recovery for men and women high in anxiety. Future research should examine whether pregnancy is responsible for these different gender patterns, or whether the inhibition of negativity is stressful for women with high levels of risk.     

Relation of intimate partner violence to salivary cortisol among couples expecting a first child

Despite advances in understanding the role that several physiological systems play in the occurrence of general violence, little progress has been made toward understanding biological correlates of intimate partner violence (IPV). We explored involvement of one physiological system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Among 137 heterosexual couples expecting a first child, baseline level of HPA activity-assessed via salivary cortisol collected before a couple conflict discussion-was linked to both men's and women's violence perpetration. HPA reactivity to the conflict bout did not show an independent association with IPV. However, persisting elevation in men's, and down-regulation in women's, HPA activity during a further recovery period was linked to men's violence perpetration.     

The Multidimensional Nature of Continuance Commitment: Commitment Owing to Economic Exchanges Versus Lack of Employment Alternatives

Purpose  

The purpose of this investigation was to develop a multidimensional measure of continuance organizational commitment, specifying dimensions for continuance commitment based on the perception of beneficial economic exchanges versus the perception of low job alternatives.     

Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities

Relations of maternal and child characteristics to child cortisol reactivity to and recovery from emotional arousal were examined prospectively at approximately 7 months of age (infancy) and then again at approximately 15 months of age (toddlerhood). The sample was diverse and population based (N = 1,292 mother-infant dyads) and included families from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Maternal behavior, family income-to-need ratio and social advantage, and child temperament, attention, and mental development were assessed, and children's saliva was sampled before and after standardized procedures designed to elicit emotional arousal. Maternal engagement in infancy was associated with greater cortisol reactivity at the infancy assessment and with reduced overall cortisol level at the toddler assessment. Also at the toddler assessment, child attention, mental development, and temperamental distress to novelty were associated with increased cortisol reactivity and regulation, whereas temperamental distress to limitations and African American ethnicity were associated with reduced cortisol reactivity. Findings are consistent with prior work linking early caregiving to the development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response system and with a conceptual model in which developing temperament is characterized by the interplay of emotional reactivity and the emergence of the ability to effortfully regulate this reactivity using attention.