Gender-related sexual attitudes: Some crosscultural similarities and differences

We tested the hypothesis that males differentiate love and sex more strongly than females, and that the magnitude of this gender difference is augmented in homosexuals and diminished in married heterosexuals. American and Swedish subjects sorted statements describing behaviors of love, sex, and services into two piles on the basis of perceived similarity. The results of all three studies were consistent with the predictions. In addition, the findings suggest that Americans differentiate love and sex more strongly than Swedes.     

Conflict or control: Research utilization strategies as power techniques

The sociology of research and knowledge use, argue the authors, could be a way of linking important parts of sociology, such as organization studies, the sociology of science to each other. In the article, they discuss the idea that organizational responses to environments are related to research utilization. Based upon an empirical investigation of city welfare departments, four empirical “utilization strategies” are presented and shown to be related to power and control patterns. While negative utilization strategies are hostile to uncontrolled research utilization and enhance the formation of bureaucratic expertise, conflict-oriented strategies are discursively productive and reinforce research use and alliance formation with social scientists to control the environment. Kjell Nilsson presented his dissertation on research utilization in different policy sectors at Lund University in February 1992. He has written and cowritten one book and several articles in the field of knowledge and bureaucracy. Sune Sunesson, Ph.D., is currently professor and head of the research department and Ph.D., program in the School of Social Work at Lund University. He has written several books and articles in the field of bureaucracy studies, the sociology of human service organizations and the utilization of knowledge.     

Differences in cognitive control in children and adolescents with combined and inattentive subtypes of ADHD

The aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder-combined subtype (ADHD-C) and predominantly inattentive subtype (ADHD-PI) to direct their attention and to exert cognitive control in a forced attention dichotic listening (DL) task. Twenty-nine, medication-naive participants with ADHD-C, 42 with ADHD-PI, and 40 matched healthy controls (HC) between 9 and 16 years were assessed. In the DL task, two different auditory stimuli (syllables) are presented simultaneously, one in each ear. The participants are asked to report the syllable they hear on each trial with no instruction on focus of attention or to explicitly focus attention and to report either the right- or left-ear syllable. The DL procedure is presumed to reflect different cognitive processes: perception (nonforced condition/NF), attention (forced-right condition/FR), and cognitive control (forced-left condition/FL). As expected, all three groups had normal perception and attention. The children and adolescents with ADHD-PI showed a significant right-ear advantage also during the FL condition, while the children and adolescents in the ADHD-C group showed a no-ear advantage and the HC showed a significant left-ear advantage in the FL condition. This suggests that the ADHD subtypes differ in degree of cognitive control impairment. Our results may have implications for further conceptualization, diagnostics, and treatment of ADHD subtypes.     

Voice and Culture: A Prospect Theory Approach

The present study examines the congruence of individuals' minimum preferred amounts of voice with the prospect theory value function across nine countries. Accounting for previously ignored minimum preferred amounts of voice and actual voice amounts integral to testing the steepness of gain and loss functions explicated in prospect theory, we use curve fitting to show that ratings of procedural justice fit prospect theory's value function specifically. Further, we investigate the form of this function across nine countries that range in power distance. Results suggest that the form of the value function is congruent with prospect theory, showing an S‐shaped curve that is steeper in the loss than in the gain domain. Further, this pattern is similar across countries. Theoretical and practical implications of these results for both decision making and organizational justice are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of risk on initial trust formation

This paper seeks to expand our understanding of initial trust by looking at how variation in risk influences the nature of trust and the process of initial trust formation. Four hypotheses were tested in two experiments involving participants with and without work experience. A first hypothesis suggested a positive relationship between a general propensity to trust and initial trust; a second hypothesis, a negative relationship between risk and initial trust; whereas a third hypothesis posited that risk would increase the importance participants place on benevolence and integrity. A fourth hypothesis suggested that risk would have a positive and moderating influence on the effect of out‐of‐role behavior when presented after role‐conformant in‐role behavior. Findings are presented and discussed and practical implications suggested.     

Couples therapy: effectiveness of treatment and long‐term follow‐up

Most couples therapy theories are developed and tested in the USA. In this clinical study, we investigated such therapies in a Swedish context. Over 300 couples were enrolled in the study of whom just under half completed the end‐of‐treatment assessment and just over 40 per cent a two‐year follow‐up. At the start, the study group displayed severe problems in marital adjustment, dyadic interactions and psychiatric symptoms. A relatively short treatment was used and 50 per cent of the couples attended less than nine sessions. Outcomes of treatment showed significant improvements in relationship matters, individual mental health and enhanced coping abilities. At long‐term follow‐up, all results remained the same and in some aspects improved for both sexes. This study confirms the effectiveness of such therapies in a Swedish context.     

Cellular memory in spinal nociceptive circuitry

Besides transmitting and processing, neurons may also store information for prolonged periods of time (e.g. by use-dependent change in synaptic strength). In 1966 long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission was discovered in the hippocampus, an area implicated in learning and memory. Recent studies show that similar mechanisms apply to pain pathways, at least in the spinal cord, and may account for some forms of clinical problems like hyperalgesia, allodynia, and deafferentation pain states, such as phantom pain. In this review, we briefly summarize key aspects of synaptic plasticity known from the brain and in the spinal cord. Then we describe and discuss related changes in spinal nociceptive neurons based on results from our own laboratory.     

Working memory deficits in transgenic rats overexpressing human adenosine A2A receptors in the brain

Adenosine receptors in the central nervous system have been implicated in the modulation of different behavioural patterns and cognitive functions although the specific role of A(2A) receptor (A(2A)R) subtype in learning and memory is still unclear. In the present work we establish a novel transgenic rat strain, TGR(NSEhA2A), overexpressing adenosine A(2A)Rs mainly in the cerebral cortex, the hippocampal formation, and the cerebellum. Thereafter, we explore the relevance of this A(2A)Rs overexpression for learning and memory function. Animals were behaviourally assessed in several learning and memory tasks (6-arms radial tunnel maze, T-maze, object recognition, and several Morris water maze paradigms) and other tests for spontaneous motor activity (open field, hexagonal tunnel maze) and anxiety (plus maze) as modification of these behaviours may interfere with the assessment of cognitive function. Neither motor performance and emotional/anxious-like behaviours were altered by overexpression of A(2A)Rs. TGR(NSEhA2A) showed normal hippocampal-dependent learning of spatial reference memory. However, they presented working memory deficits as detected by performance of constant errors in the blind arms of the 6 arm radial tunnel maze, reduced recognition of a novel object and a lack of learning improvement over four trials on the same day which was not observed over consecutive days in a repeated acquisition paradigm in the Morris water maze. Given the interdependence between adenosinic and dopaminergic function, the present results render the novel TGR(NSEhA2A) as a putative animal model for the working memory deficits and cognitive disruptions related to overstimulation of cortical A(2A)Rs or to dopaminergic prefrontal dysfunction as seen in schizophrenic or Parkinson's disease patients.     

Dimensional analysis of sense of coherence using structural equation modelling

The sense of coherence (SOC) concept has been criticized on conceptual and psychometric grounds. The aim of this study was to develop the concept using structural equation modelling. The short 13‐item version of the SOC questionnaire was used and data were collected from two different samples. Each sample consisted of about 2000 individuals, selected to be representative of the Swedish population. A model with a general factor and two subordinate specific factors yielded a satisfactory solution in both samples. The two factors were labelled Social Comprehension and Commitment and Unpleasant Emotions and Inner Tension respectively. It was concluded that the 13‐item SOC scale could to a certain degree be regarded as a measure of negative affectivity and that the suggested model makes the SOC concept more theoretically coherent. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.