Mental and physical health of spouse caregivers: the role of personality.

Although personal resources of caregivers, such as coping skills and social support, have been shown to be important in understanding caregiver stress and health outcomes, personality traits have not previously been considered. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between the personality traits of neuroticism and dispositional optimism and mental and physical health outcomes. It was predicted that personality would have direct effects, and indirect effects through perceived stress, on health outcomes. Participants were spouse caregivers of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Results showed that neuroticism and optimism were significantly related to mental and physical health. Furthermore, neuroticism had significant direct effects on all of the health outcomes, and substantial indirect effects, through perceived stress, on mental health outcomes. Optimism showed stronger indirect than direct effects on all health outcomes. These findings demonstrate the importance of including personality of the caregiver in theoretical and empirical models of the caregiving process.     

The predictability of strong-campbell interest themes among tertiary-level students

Interest assessment is an integral part of vocational counselling. In this study, tertiary-level students predicted their Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory theme scores prior to receiving test results. Findings revealed considerable accuracy in the predictions. Significant results relating to year of tertiary education, sex differences, and differences between seekers and non-seekers of counselling, are discussed, along with implications for counselling.     

Causal attributions, self-monitoring, and gender differences among four virginity status groups

Sexual choices and behavior involve complex cognitive and affective processes. Attribution theory remains a prominent social-cognitive model that may help explain such phenomena. In the present study, 198 undergraduates, separated by self-reported virginity status, completed Russell's Causal Dimension Scale and Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale. The purpose was to determine whether different virginity status groups make different causal attributions about virginity and sexual choices, whether self-monitoring influences this attribution process, and whether males and females differ in this regard. Results indicated a variety of statistically significant virginity status and gender differences in causal attributions. Self-monitoring, however, was not a significant covariate. Possible explanations for these results, and their implications, are discussed.     

A controlled evaluation of token economy procedures with chronic schizophrenic patients

Eighteen chronic schizophrenic patients were allocated to 3 matched groups, one group acting as an own-ward no-treatment control group. The two other groups moved to a token-economy ward, where the token group received contingent tokens, social reinforcement, and informational feedback as a consequence of appropriate behaviour, and where the control group received contingent social reinforcement and feedback with a matched amount of non-contingent tokens. After a 3 month baseline phase, this procedure was followed for a total of 15 months. A continuous assessment system was used with some weekly and monthly assessments, incorporating nursing checklists and ratings, psychiatric ratings, psychological tests, and time-sampling procedures, as well as continuous monitoring of the ward programme. The introduction of contingent tokens had an immediate positive effect in 3 areas of behaviour, but this advantage disappeared over the 15 months owing to the slower but sustained improvement in the control group. Significant improvement was limited to the areas of Social Withdrawal. Appearance and Routine. The patients who improved the most on any measure were those who were initially the most deteriorated. There were paradoxical changes in non-target behaviour, and in symptomatic behaviour. Suggestions and instructions to nurses may play a major part in influencing patient behaviour within and between experimental phases.     

Brief exposure to contingent reinforcement produces a sustained increment in the strength of an elicited response.

Squirrel monkeys' lever pressing produced by response-independent shock was measured before, and for an extended period following, exposure to a shock-avoidance procedure. Following avoidance training, the frequency of responding increased by multiples of 10 to 50 across subjects and evidence little or no decrement for up to 6 months of postreinforcement testing. Manual responding produced by intense environmental stimulation may be substantially strengthened by a brief history of reinforcement, such that it is sustained over long periods without reinforcement.     

An effect of luminance contrast on high-spatial-frequency tritanopia

Luminance contrast was found to affect high-spatial-frequency tritanopia despite the S-cone coordinates of the stimuli being kept constant. This proves that a traditional account of artificial tritanopias based on the spatial resolution differences between the S-cone channel and the M- and L-cone channels is not applicable here. We suggest that the lack of spatial resolution in one of the post-receptor (rather than receptor) spatio-chromatic channels could be a cause of high-spatial-frequency tritanopia.     

Attack produced by intermittent reinforcement of a concurrent operant response

Squirrel monkeys pressed a lever to produce food on several fixed-ratio schedules; they could also bite a rubber hose. Biting attack occurred during the postreinforcement pause and in early portions of the ratio response run. Also, biting attacks increased after transitions to higher values of the fixed-ratio requirement and in extinction. The results show that extinction-induced aggression effects occur in primates.