Contextual control of long-term habituation in rats

This study examined contextual control of long-term habituation and whether such effects are dependent on the habituating response system. Habituation of the acoustic startle response transferred from the home cage to the testing context, whereas habituation of lick suppression was context specific (Experiments 1 and 2). Contextual control of habituation was demonstrated between 2 experimental contexts for lick suppression to a tone (Experiment 3) and bar-press suppression to a light (Experiment 4). Experiment 5 extinguished habituation of lick suppression and the orienting response to a tone with 27 exposures to the habituation context. Context specificity of both responses also was found. Previous failures to demonstrate contextual control of habituation may be due to the choice of response system and to less sensitive procedures to detect response recovery. The habituation mechanism for startle is independent from the process or processes that underlie habituation in other response systems, but the nature of these mechanisms is not yet known.     

Advancing access to Medicare-funded mental health treatment during the opioid epidemic: A counselor advocacy analysis

Although advocacy is a priority for counseling professionals, little is known about counseling advocates’ participation in the legislative advocacy process. Recent legislation to address the opioid crisis allowed counseling advocates to provide public comments to advance counselor inclusion in the Medicare program. A thematic analysis of 548 public comments provided on behalf of the counseling profession yielded four categories: advocacy on behalf of (1) the proposed rule change; (2) broader Medicare inclusion; (3) the proposed rule change with an additional request for broader Medicare reimbursement; and (4) no clear advocacy. Subthemes included increasing access to care, qualifications necessary to provide care, and the urgency of the opioid epidemic, among others. Implications for the counseling profession and counselor advocacy are discussed.     

Jesus ACTED UP and Any Possible Future of “Queer Theology”

What can we learn about the prospects for “queer theology” from how Goss wrote Jesus ACTED UP into the future for which he hoped? Theology seems to add four things to the book's political arguments and exhortations. It deepens the analyses of oppression, provides stronger means for re-education, invokes divine help, and doubles political theater with sacrament. These tasks of critique, re-education, invocation, and ritual will continue to define any Christian theology that might be called “queer.” Each requires the transformation of language. In order to have a future, queer theology must undertake a poiesis outside the endless prattle that sustains present power. Its poetry may first appear as silence.     

Attachment in Adolescence and Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has been conceptualized as a constellation of symptoms related to problems in self-functioning, emotion regulation, and interpersonal relationships. Its etiology has been connected to individuals’ early childhood environment, caregiving relationships, and traumatic life events. Recent literature has noted the potential presence of BPD beginning in adolescence, or even earlier in childhood. Attachment theory offers a lens for understanding the symptoms of borderline personality disorder and identifying potential aspects of treatment that may be specifically valuable for adolescent patients. Adolescence marks a time when the attachment system has increased relevance due to the importance of identity formation, peer relationships, body representations and the development of autonomy at this time, in the face of physical changes and academic challenges. This article will summarize research on attachment, body representations, personality disorders, and features of development in adolescence, in order to enhance clinical understanding of patients who presenting with these types of difficulties.     

The politics of insight

Previous studies showed that liberals and conservatives differ in cognitive style. Liberals are more flexible, and tolerant of complexity and novelty, whereas conservatives are more rigid, are more resistant to change, and prefer clear answers. We administered a set of compound remote associate problems, a task extensively used to differentiate problem-solving styles (via insight or analysis). Using this task, several researches have proven that self-reports, which differentiate between insight and analytic problem-solving, are reliable and are associated with two different neural circuits. In our research we found that participants self-identifying with distinct political orientations demonstrated differences in problem-solving strategy. Liberals solved significantly more problems via insight instead of in a step-by-step analytic fashion. Our findings extend previous observations that self-identified political orientations reflect differences in cognitive styles. More specifically, we show that type of political orientation is associated with problem-solving strategy. The data converge with previous neurobehavioural and cognitive studies indicating a link between cognitive style and the psychological mechanisms that mediate political beliefs.     

Contrived motivating operations alter delay‐discounting values of disordered gamblers

The present study required 9 disordered gamblers to make hypothetical selections between smaller and larger amounts of money at varying delays. Participants were also required to respond to the task given the contrived hypothetical conditions of earning twice or half as much as they did at their current jobs. The results demonstrated how participants’ delay discounting was altered via contrived motivating operations, strengthening the argument that discounting may be a state variable.     

Competition Anxiety,Motivation, and Mental Toughness in Golf

The purpose of this study was to examine whether one's profile of motivation was associated with competition anxiety through mental toughness among 173 competitive golfers (164 men, 9 women). Latent profile analysis identified three distinct motivation profiles (high, moderate, and low motivation). Multicategorical mediation models demonstrated that athletes reporting low or moderate levels of motivation had higher levels of competition anxiety, with these associations partially mediated by lower levels of mental toughness. These findings would permit practitioners to better understand motivation, mental toughness, and competition anxiety symptoms, and their associations.     

Reporting Ethics Committee Approval in Public Administration Research

While public administration research is thriving because of increased attention to social scientific rigor, lingering problems of methods and ethics remain. This article investigates the reporting of ethics approval within public administration publications. Beginning with an overview of ethics requirements regarding research with human participants, I turn to an examination of human participants protections for public administration research. Next, I present the findings of my analysis of articles published in the top five public administration journals over the period from 2000 to 2012, noting the incidences of ethics approval reporting as well as funding reporting. In explicating the importance of ethics reporting for public administration research, as it relates to replication, reputation, and vulnerable populations, I conclude with recommendations for increasing ethics approval reporting in public administration research.