Motivating and reinforcing functions of the male sex role: Social analogues of partial reinforcement,delay of reinforcement,and intermittent shock

After listening to a masculine male, female subjects learned an instrumental escape response reinforced by the opportunity to listen to an androgynous male. The results of three experiments revealed a striking correspondence between conventional learning variables and social analogues of acquisition, partial reinforcement, delay of reinforcement, and intermittent shock. Subject responses to a postconversation questionnaire indicated that the comments made by the androgynous male were judged as more appropriate and more honest, and he was rated as more likable, more intelligent, more moral, and more mentally healthy, than his masculine counterpart. Discussion focused on the importance of investigating male sex role action using additional theoretically relevant social analogues of conventional learning variables and other familiar learning paradigms.     

Der ‚intentionale Fehlschluß‘ — ein Dogma?

Journal for General Philosophy of Science -     

Influence of time on social preferences: implications for life-span development

Socioemotional selectivity theory holds that the reliable decline in social contact in later life is due, in part, to older people's preferences for emotionally meaningful social partners and that such preferences are due not to age, per se, but to perceived limitations on time. Confirming the theory, in both the United States and Hong Kong, older people showed a preference for familiar social partners, whereas younger people did not show this preference. However, when asked to imagine an expansive future, older people's bias for familiar social partners disappeared. Conversely, in the face of a hypothesized constraint on time, both younger and older people preferred familiar social partners. Moreover, social preferences in Hong Kong differed before and after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, which was construed as a sociopolitical time constraint. One year prior to the handover, only older people displayed preferences for familiar partners. Two months before the handover, both age groups showed such preferences. One year after the handover, once again, only older Hong Kong people preferred familiar social partners.     

Psychopathy and the Five Factor Model in a Noninstitutionalized Sample: A Domain and Facet Level Analysis

The relationship of primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions as measured by the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy (LSRP) Scales to NEO-PI-R domain and facet scales of the Five Factor Model (FFM) was examined in a sample (N = 463) of young adults. Previous investigations were extended by (1) addressing the relationship of higher- (i.e., domain) and lower-order (i.e., facet) FFM traits to primary and secondary psychopathy in noninstitutionalized persons, in an attempt to validate hypotheses by T. A. Widiger and D. R. Lynam (1998); (2) examining sex differences in FFM traits in relation to these two psychopathic dispositions; and (3) lending further evidence for the validity of the LSRP. LSRP primary psychopathy was marked by low Agreeableness whereas LSRP secondary psychopathy was characterized by high Neuroticism, low Agreeableness, and low Conscientiousness. Although few sex differences were found between primary and secondary psychopathy, findings support the use of NEO-PI-R domain and facet scales in the identification of personality disorder.