Exposure to pornography,permissive and nonpermissive cues,and male aggression toward females

The present study examined the role of permissive and nonpermissive cues in mediating the relationship between exposure to erotica and aggression. Male subjects viewed either neutral slides with a silent female or erotic slides with a female who made permissive, nonpermissive, or no comments about the slides. The males rated the slides and subsequently rated the female confederate. Male subjects were then given an opportunity to administer their choice of several intensities of shock to the female in a competitive reaction-time task. Subjects in the permissive cues condition rated the erotic slides as more arousing, saw the female as more reasonable and accepting, and selected more intense shocks for the female than did subjects in the other conditions. One explanation of these results is that permissive cues in the presence of erotica led the male to believe that other normally inappropriate behaviors would be tolerated.     

Lateral asymmetries in electrodermal responses to nonattended stimuli: a response to Dawson and Schell

Recently, Dawson and Schell (1982) provided convincing evidence that words presented to the nonattended ear during a dichotic-listening task undergo automatic semantic analysis in the absence of intention or awareness. Because of its methodological rigor, this finding is important in the context of the long-standing controversy surrounding the preattentive processing phenomenon. However, we challenge the authors' suggestion of a right-hemisphere locus for this phenomenon. We offer a methodological basis for the findings and propose a countersuggestion of a left hemisphere, or at least bilateral, processing locus.     

Children's strategies for controlling affective responses to aversive social experience

It was hypothesized that one mechanism of self-control that children develop is the strategic capacity to select the experiences they encounter. This hypothesis led to the prediction that children would deal with certain aversive social experiences by seeking out or taking advantage of opportunities for nurturant experiences. Young children were exposed to an aversive social experience in which they received less nurturance than a peer, a positive experience in which they received more nurturance, or a neutral experience in which nurturance was equal. Subsequently, an opportunity was provided for children to control the length of time they watched a highly nurturant television program. As predicted, boys experiencing an aversive social encounter increased the length of time they exposed themselves to the nurturant television show, and their level of reduced positive affect was related to how long they watched the nurturant content, further supporting the interpretation that they did so in response to their own affective state. Girls did not adopt the strategy of self-exposure to nurturant television but did appear to engage in self-distraction during the aversive social experience. Despite the apparent use of control strategies, there was no indication that these strategies were effective for the amelioration of reduced positive affect resulting from the aversive social experience. Discussion focuses on the sex differences observed in the adoption of strategic behavior and factors contributing to the ineffectiveness of the control strategies. A general model is proposed for personal and environmental factors requisite for the selection, employment, and effectiveness of strategies to control experiences and their affective consequences.     

The complexity continuum in the radex and hierarchical models of intelligence

The hierarchical and radex models of ability organization are shown to be parallel. Both models suggest a complexity continuum along which cognitive performance tasks can be arrayed. In our revised radex model, the complexity continuum from the center to the periphery is shown to correspond to the general-to-specific dimension in factor analyses, or to test correlations with the general factor; complexity is redefined as apparent processing complexity. Examination of the theoretical and empirical bases for this continuum indicates its central importance for theories of intelligence.     

Inhibitory avoidance deficit following short-term adrenalectomy in the rat: the role of adrenal catecholamines

Impaired retention of an inhibitory avoidance response was observed in rats subjected to adrenalectomy (ADX) up to 120 hr before the single learning trial. Corticosterone substitution failed to normalize this behavioral deficit. Rats ADX 240 hr prior to the learning trial showed a normalized behavior. Adrenomedullectomy (ADXM) 48 or 240 hr before learning caused a similar impairment as in short-term ADX rats. The 240-hr ADX rats subjected to corticosterone substitution showed the same behavioral deficit as short-term ADX rats or ADXM ones. Immediate postlearning subcutaneous injection of adrenaline in a dose range of 0.005-5.0 micrograms/kg or of noradrenaline (0.005-0.5 microgram/kg) to 48-hr ADX rats resulted in a dose-related improvement of later retention behavior. Higher doses of catecholamines were less or ineffective. Postlearning treatment of 48-hr ADXM rats with adrenaline (0.5-500 micrograms/kg) caused a similar pattern of behavioral changes. It is concluded that adrenal catecholamines play an important role in the modulation of consolidation of memory. In addition, the high circulating ACTH levels that follow long-term ADX may correct for the behaviorial deficit induced by the absence of adrenomedullary catecholamines.     

Homelessness in the United States. An ecological perspective.

This article presents an ecological perspective on homelessness that emphasizes the context in which homeless people live and the complex interactions between personal, social, economic, and service system resources that affect their well-being. The ecological perspective encourages researchers and program developers to assess the problems of homelessness at multiple levels of analysis, to view homelessness as a result of contextual factors that interact with individual and family vulnerabilities, and to assess carefully the social contexts in which researchers and program developers operate. Four ecological principles are described as a heuristic for research, intervention, and policy development. The implications of an ecological perspective for psychologists who wish to get involved in dealing with homelessness are discussed.     

Homelessness and dual diagnosis.

People who are dually diagnosed with severe mental illness and substance use disorders constitute 10%-20% of homeless persons. They are a heterogeneous and extremely vulnerable subgroup with complex, poorly understood needs. In this article recent research on the epidemiology, subject characteristics, and service needs of the dually diagnosed homeless population is reviewed. Also, the range of evolving approaches to providing social services, housing, and mental health and substance-abuse treatments; the relevant system issues and legal issues; and problems with current research, as well as future research directions, are discussed. The importance of the distinction between providing appropriate living environments and mental health treatments emerges throughout.     

Similarity ratings and confusability of lipread consonants compared with similarity ratings of auditory and orthographic stimuli.

Similarity ratings of pairs of lipread consonants were obtained using a 5-point scale. Matrices were constructed showing mean similarity ratings and confusions among stimuli. Both the similarity and the confusion data provide normative data useful for researchers in many areas. Lipread data collected here are compared with similarity ratings of orthographically and auditorily presented consonants collected by Manning (1977). These comparisons provide information about how stimulus similarity both within and between presentation formats may affect information processing of the three types of stimuli. These data are of special interest to researchers studying the visual processing of speech and the effect of format of presentation on recall.     

Disintegrated experience: the dissociative disorders revisited

We present proposed changes to the dissociative disorders section of the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and review the concept of pathological and nonpathological dissociation, including empirical findings on the relations between trauma and dissociative phenomenology and between dissociation and hypnosis. The most important proposals include the creation of two new diagnostic entities, brief reactive dissociative disorder and transient dissociative disturbance, and the readoption of the criterion of amnesia for a multiple personality disorder diagnosis. We conclude that further work on dissociative processes will provide an important link between clinical and experimental approaches to human cognition, emotion, and personality.