Contingency is used to prepare for outcomes: Implications for a functional analysis of learning

It is generally assumed that the function of contingency learning is to predict the occurrence of important events in order to prepare for them. This assumption, however, has scarcely been tested. Moreover, the little evidence that is available suggests just the opposite result. People do not use contingency to prepare for outcomes, nor to predict their occurrence, although they do use it to infer the causal and predictive value of cues. By using both judgmental and behavioral data, we designed the present experiments as a further test for this assumption. The results show that—at least under certain conditions—people do use contingency to prepare for outcomes, even though they would still not use it to predict their occurrence. The functional and adaptive aspects of these results are discussed in the present article.     

Mental health help‐seeking and refugee adolescents: Qualitative findings from a mixed‐methods investigation

There is general agreement in Australia and other Western resettlement countries that many refugee adolescents with social, behavioural, and mental health problems are not accessing mental health care. There is, however, a paucity of research on refugee adolescent mental health service utilisation and help‐seeking. Most research to date has centred on adolescents in the general population, and even then is still very limited. This paper presents the findings of 13 focus groups held with 85 refugee adolescents aged 13–17 years from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Serbia, and Sudan. The study was part of a wider investigation of mental health service utilisation by refugee parents of children aged 4–17 years, and by adolescents aged 13–17 years. With respect to adolescents, the focus group findings indicate that most are very reluctant to venture beyond their close friendship networks for help with their psychosocial problems due to a range of individual, cultural, and service‐related barriers. Implications for mental health policymakers, service planners, and service providers are discussed.     

Realism Versus Constructivism in Their Competition for Dominance in Politics: The Case of Russia

This article focuses on the general theoretical issue of realism versus constructivism (or normativism) in politics, with a case of the present-day Russia as the main and most telling (but not the only) example. We present four assertions that we are going to defend. First, we claim that in the sphere of international relations, political realism of the offensive type, after decades of more tempered USA–USSR relations, is again challenging its opponent: political constructivism. Second, political realism is winning in the sphere of domestic politics and policy in the leading countries as well. Third, we touch upon theoretical issues and discuss the ontological nature of political realism in comparison with political constructivism and the kindred of the latter with normativism, legalism, constitutionalism and liberalism. Political constructivism as a concept is underestimated and rarely used. Our article explicates the concept of political constructivism, which is a novel contribution to political theory and political philosophy. Fourth, we show that political constructivism, being the most advanced achievement of political civilization compared to archaic realism, has not lost the game so far and should be upheld in its battle with the remnants of the wild political past. Sliding back to political realism would turn humankind into another degraded animal species instead of making it the pilot in continuing human progress.     

EEG captures affective touch: CT-optimal touch and neural oscillations

Tactile interactions are of developmental importance to social and emotional interactions across species. In beginning to understand the affective component of tactile stimulation, research has begun to elucidate the neural mechanisms that underscore slow, affective touch. Here, we extended this emerging body of work and examined whether affective touch (C tactile [CT]-optimal speed), as compared to nonaffective touch (non-CT-optimal speed) and no touch conditions, modulated EEG oscillations. We report an attenuation in alpha and beta activity to affective and nonaffective touch relative to the no touch condition. Further, we found an attenuation in theta activity specific to the affective, as compared to the nonaffective touch and no touch conditions. Similar to theta, we also observed an attenuation of beta oscillations during the affective touch condition, although only in parietal scalp sites. Decreased activity in theta and parietal-beta ranges may reflect attentional-emotional regulatory mechanisms; however, future work is needed to provide insight into the potential neural coupling between theta and beta and their specific role in encoding slow, tactile stimulation.     

Affective Arousal During Blaming in Couple Therapy: Combining Analyses of Verbal Discourse and Physiological Responses in Two Case Studies

Blaming one’s partner is common in couple therapy and such moral comment often evokes affective arousal. How people attune to each other as whole embodied beings is a current focus of interest in psychotherapy research. This study contributes to the literature by looking at attunement during critical moments in therapy interaction. Responses to blaming in verbal dialogue and at the level of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) were investigated in two couple therapy cases with a client couple and two therapists. Video-recorded couple therapy sessions were analyzed using discursive psychology and a narrative approach. The use of positioning, a discourse analytic tool, was also studied. ANS responses of the participants, including the therapists, were measured as electrodermal activity. The findings demonstrate how identity blaming, i.e. positioning the other person in ways counter to their preferred identity narrative, was accompanied by increased electrodermal activity in most participants. In the two cases studied, blaming centered on the themes of loyalty, trust and parenting. It is argued that identity blaming in these thematic domains increases the arousal level of the partners, since disloyalty, unfaithfulness and irresponsible parenting threaten the stability of the relationship.     

Creating a Self-Plagiarism Research Topic Typology through Bibliometric Visualisation

Self-plagiarism, textual recycling and redundancy seemed to be controversial and unethical; however some questions about its definition are still open. The objective in this paper presented study was to use bibliometric analysis to synthesise and visualize the research literature production and derive a typology of self-plagiarism research. Five topics emerged: Self-plagiarism, Institutional self-plagiarism, Self-plagiarism and ICT, Self-plagiarism in academic writing, Self-plagiarism in science. The state of the art topics seem to be “social medium”, “virtual world”, “face book”, “sociomateriality”, “knowledge sharing”, “open access”, “institutional repository”, “retraction” and “responsible conduct”.     

REVIEWS

WOMAN-AFFIRMING SEX: AN EXAMINATION OF FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN's SEXUALITY
Sexual Salvation: Affrming Women's Sexual Rights and Pleasures, Naomi B. McCormick. Westport, CT:
THE WIT AND WISDOM OF A FEMINIST SEXOLOGIST
Sex is Not a Natural Act and Other Essays, Leonore Tiefer. Boulder, CO:
THE BATTLEGROUND OF OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS
Male/Female Roles: Opposing Viewpoints. Jonathan S. Petrikin (Ed). San Diego, CA:
Feminism: Opposing Viewpoints. Carol Wekesser. (Ed.). San Diego, CA:
Sexual Values: Opposing Viewpoints. Charles P. Cozic (Ed.). San Diego, CA:
A "FADDISH PREOCCUPATION" COMES INTO ITS OWN
Women and Suicidal Behavior, Silvia Sara Canetto and David Lester (Eds.). New York: