Perceived Control in Prison: Its Relation to Reported Crowding,Stress, and Symptoms1

Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of perceived control in two men's prisons, one housing 181 inmates and the other housing 623 inmates. In both prisons, inmates' perceived control over the environment was found to be significantly related to their ratings of their living accommodations, experienced stress, and physical symptoms, even when type of cell was held constant.     

The pastor and his privacy

Pastoral Psychology -     

Testosterone and personality among college students and military veterans

Relationships of serum and saliva to personality were examined among 401 college students in four laboratory studies and 5,236 military veterans in one archival study. Among the students, there were few relationships between testosterone and traditional personality measures. Among the veterans, MMPI scores and DSM-III diagnoses showed testosterone related to drug and alcohol abuse, antisocial and generally intemperate behavior, and effective disorders. Consistent with social control theory, correlations were higher among veterans who were lower in socioeconomic status. It appears likely that testosterone has innate effects that are socially undesirable but can be attenuated by bonds between the individual and society. Effect sizes were small, suggesting that testosterone will have noticeable effects only in large populations or individuals who differ markedly from the population mean. Further research should focus upon antisocial correlates of testosterone and conditions that produce marked changes in testosterone levels.     

A Playroom Observation Procedure to Assess Children with Mental Retardation and ADHD

Forty-two children (ages 6 to 12 years old) with moderate mental retardation to borderline intellectual functioning were studied in a laboratory playroom setting to determine whether children identified as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or controls differed on activity and attentional measures. Children with ADHD were further divided into ADHD + conduct problems (ADHD + CD) and ADHD-only subgroups (with an ADHD-combined group comprising children of both subgroups). An interval recording system was used to code observations of independent play and a restricted academic task. Results indicated that the ADHD-combined group was significantly more vocal and engaged in a significantly greater number of toy changes than controls during independent play. Significant group differences were also noted during the restricted academic task, with the ADHD-combined and ADHD + CD groups more off-task and engaging in a greater number of toy touches than controls. Discriminant analyses found independent play measures to predict group membership in 70 percent of cases (ADHD-combined vs. controls), but in only 64 percent of cases using measures from the restricted academic task. No significant findings resulted when the ADHD subjects were further divided into two subgroups. Despite some inconsistent findings, such laboratory-based observations may be of value in the diagnosis of ADHD in children with moderate mental retardation to borderline intellectual functioning.     

The neural pathways mediating quiet-biting attack behavior from the hypothalamus in the cat: A functional autoradiographic study

Electrical stimulation of the region of the lateral hypothalamus produced a consistent form of quiet-biting attack behavior in cats. In one series of experiments, cats, implanted with electrodes from which attack had been elicited, were anesthetized and then were injected with a bolus of ¹⁴C-2-deoxyglucose at the same time as electrical stimulation was delivered through the attack electrodes. Brains prepared for X-ray autoradiography revealed that lateral hypothalamic stimulation activated the classical medial forebrain bundle pathway supplying the septal region, diagonal band, lateral preoptic area, and ventral tegmental region. Stimulation of quiet-attack sites in perifornical hypothalamus resulted in the activation of a much more extensive projection system which included the central and lateral tegmental fields of the midbrain and pons, and central gray region, as well as the structures described above. In a second series of experiments, ³H-leucine was placed into the region of the electrode tip from which attack was elicited in order to identify more precisely the pathways arising from that site. In general, tritiated amino acid radioautography replicated the ¹⁴C-2-deoxyglucose findings. In addition, the amino acid radioautographic data revealed the presence of extensive projections from perifornical hypothalamus to such pontine structures as the nucleus locus coeruleus, motor nucleus of NV , and the lateral pontine tegmental field. The functional connections between the lateral hypothalamic “attack region” and lateral preoptic zone were also confirmed by electrophysiological methods.     

Sex differences in behavioral consequences of defeat in the rat are not organized by testosterone during early development

Male and female rats react differently to losing an aggressive encounter, the presence of testosterone (at the time of confrontation) being a critical factor in the manifestation of this sex difference. Female rats were androgenized by 250 μg testosterone propionate sc on days 1 and 5 after birth. When adult they received a sc testosterone proprionate (TP) implant and were subjected to repeated defeats by being placed in the cage of an aggressive resident female. In contrast to males, which freeze and become permanently submissive, androgenized females showed no freezing or other signs of submission. The sex difference in response to defeat is therefore not dependent on the presence of testosterone during the period of post-natal sexual differentiation.