Psychological distress and well-being in advanced cancer: The effects of optimism and coping

This study examined the relations among optimism, coping, functional status, and psychological adjustment in 75 adults diagnosed with cancer. Both the positive and the negative aspects of psychological adjustment were assessed. All participants had been diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer (i.e., Stages II, III, and IV). Participants completed three assessments across a 4-month time period. Both optimism and coping were associated with psychological adjustment, even after controlling for functional status and prior adjustment. Additionally, optimism and coping were differentially related to distress and well-being. Optimism was strongly and positively associated with well-being and inversely related to distress. Escape-Avoidance coping was positively associated with distress and Accepting Responsibility coping was negatively associated with well-being. Comparisons between the current and prior studies indicated that individuals who are diagnosed with more advanced stages of cancer or who have survived bone marrow transplantation exhibit higher levels of optimism than do healthy individuals and individuals with early-stage disease.     

Accountability in a computerized society

This essay warns of eroding accountability in computerized societies. It argues that assumptions about computing and features of situations in which computers are produced create barriers to accountability. Drawing on philosophical analyses of moral blame and responsibility, four barriers are identified: 1) the problem of many hands, 2) the problem of bugs, 3) blaming the computer, and 4) software ownership without liability. The paper concludes with ideas on how to reverse this trend. Several people have contributed generously to this work. Michael Davis, Deborah G. Johnson, Arthur Kuflik, Pamela Samuelson, Debra Satz, Richard De George, Larry May, and Dennis Thompson read drafts and made invaluable suggestions. Reviewers forScience and Engineering Ethics offered thorough and challenging commentary. An earlier version of the paper was presented at The American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Meeting, December 1993, where audience comments and questions led to clarification of several key issues.     

SEPARATE AND COMBINED EFFECTS OF METHYLPHENIDATE AND A BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION ON DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR IN CHILDREN WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

We investigated the separate and combined effects of a behavioral intervention and methylphenidate (Ritalin®) on disruptive behavior and task engagement in 3 children with severe to profound mental retardation. The behavioral intervention involved differential reinforcement of appropriate behavior and guided compliance. All 3 children demonstrated decreased disruptive behavior and improved task engagement in response to the behavioral intervention. Two of the 3 children demonstrated similar improvement in response to methylphenidate. Although both interventions were highly effective for these 2 participants, the relative efficacy of the interventions varied between the 2 children. There was no evidence of an additive or synergistic effect of the two interventions, but the high efficacy of each intervention alone limited our ability to detect such effects.     

BRIEF EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF STIMULUS PROMPTS FOR ACCURATE RESPONDING ON ACADEMIC TASKS IN AN OUTPATIENT CLINIC

Brief multielement designs were used to examine the effects of specific instructional strategies on accuracy of academic performance during outpatient evaluations of 4 children with learning disorders. Instructional strategies that improved accuracy on academic tasks were identified for all participants. These results suggest that the application of experimental analysis methodologies to instructional variables may facilitate the identification of stimulus prompts that are associated with enhanced academic performance.     

Body Language of Women and Judgments of Vulnerability to Sexual Assault

The present study experimentally examined the effects of body language on judgments of vulnerability to sexual assault by strangers. Four features of body language (stride length, weight shift, body-limb movement, and foot movement) were manipulated to create 2 typical victim profiles and 1 typical nonvictim profile. Short videotapes of 3 adult female models walking alone in each of the 3 body language profiles were filmed. Forty-one college students and 33 police officers individually viewed 3 videotapes (each showing a different model and a different body language profile) and made judgments for each about the woman's confidence level and vulnerability to sexual assault. As predicted, women in the 2 victim profiles were judged to be significantly more vulnerable to sexual assault and significantly less confident than women in the nonvictim profile. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

“Family Values” and Political Persuasion: Impact of Kin-Related Rhetoric on Reactions to Political Campaigns1

Within the framework of dual-process models of persuasion, it was hypothesized that including references to kin in a persuasive speech might either (a) promote greater scrutiny of the message by making it seem more value-relevant, or (b) serve as a simple peripheral cue of value congruence. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents read a political speech that varied by argument quality (strong/weak), kin terms (absent/present), and the speaker's party affiliation. Results indicated that Democrats scrutinized the message more when kin terms were used, whereas such terms appeared to discourage message elaboration on the part of Republican participants, but only when used by an in-group member. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the efficacy of political rhetoric using kin terms.     

Experimental Personality Designs: Analyzing Categorical by Continuous Variable Interactions

Theories hypothesizing interactions between a categorical and one or more continuous variables are common in personality research. Traditionally, such hypotheses have been tested using nonoptimal adaptations of analysis of variance (ANOVA). This article describes an alternative multiple regression-based approach that has greater power and protects against spurious conclusions concerning the impact of individual predictors on the outcome in the presence of interactions. We discuss the structuring of the regression equation, the selection of a coding system for the categorical variable, and the importance of centering the continuous variable. We present in detail the interpretation of the effects of both individual predictors and their interactions as a function of the coding system selected for the categorical variable. We illustrate two- and three-dimensional graphical displays of the results and present methods for conducting post hoc tests following a significant interaction. The application of multiple regression techniques is illustrated through the analysis of two data sets. We show how multiple regression can produce all of the information provided by traditional but less optimal ANOVA procedures.     

TRUE IMITATIVE LEARNING IN PIGEONS

Abstract— Providing evidence for imitative learning in animals has been made difficult by the need to control for a number of possible nonimitation accounts (e.g., mere presence of another animal, attention drawn to a location, attention drawn to an object being manipulated) that often have not been recognized in previous research. In the present experiment we used a version of the two-action method in which a treadle could be operated by a pigeon in one of two distinctive ways with its beak by pecking or with us foot by stepping. What is unique in this experiment is not only the distinct response topographies, but also that both responses have the same effect on the environment (depression of the treadle followed by food reward) When pigeons that had observed one of the two response topographies were given access to the treadle, a significant correspondence was found between the topography of the observers responses and that of their respective demonstrators' responses.     

REPETITION BLINDNESS INTERACTS WITH SYNTACTIC GROUPING IN RAPIDLY PRESENTED SENTENCES

Abstract— This study rested for predicted effects of syntax on a repetition deficit (RD) known as repetition blindness, the reduced probability of recall for repeated words in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sentences The syntactic variable was phrase-congruent versus phrase-incongruent grouping within simultaneous RSVP displays With phrase-congruent grouping, each RSVP display contained a syntactic phrase (e g, "to play sports" in the sentence "They wanted to play sports but sports were not allowed"), whereas with phrase-incongruent grouping, RSVP displays contained nonphrases (e g, "sports but sports") RD was extensive with phrase-incongruent grouping (29%), but nonsignificant (6%) with phrase-congruent grouping, as if phrase-congruent groups free up the extra processing time needed to connect repeated words into phrases in rapidly presented sentences, enabling top-down retrieval of the phrases during recall The present results comport with effects of syntax and prosody on auditory RD, and suggest that visual and auditory RD are identical underlying phenomena.