Conjoint marital therapy to enhance anger management and reduce spouse abuse

Abstract

This paper describes a treatment program for couples who mishandle anger and/or are physically abusive. Based on a social learning conception of marital aggression, the treatment endorses the elimination of demonstrations of anger in abusive couples and elaborates upon ways to identify preliminary anger cues, to establish a ground rule that abusiveness is unacceptable, to develop alternative responses that interrupt conflict patterns, and to modify faulty relationship assumptions. Methods to improve couples' problem-solving skills and to enhance their overall enjoyment of the relationship are also proposed as important supplements to the training in anger management skills.     

Effect of grouping of evidence types on learning about interactions between observed and unobserved causes

When a cause interacts with unobserved factors to produce an effect, the contingency between the observed cause and effect cannot be taken at face value to infer causality. Yet it would be computationally intractable to consider all possible unobserved, interacting factors. Nonetheless, 6 experiments found that people can learn about an unobserved cause participating in an interaction with an observed cause when the unobserved cause is stable over time. Participants observed periods in which a cause and effect were associated followed by periods of the opposite association ("grouped condition"). Rather than concluding a complete lack of causality, participants inferred that the observed cause does influence the effect (Experiment 1), and they gave higher causal strength estimates when there were longer periods during which the observed cause appeared to influence the effect (Experiment 2). Consistent with these results, when the trials were grouped, participants inferred that the observed cause interacted with an unobserved cause (Experiments 3 and 4). Indeed, participants could even make precise predictions about the pattern of interaction (Experiments 5 and 6). Implications for theories of causal reasoning are discussed.     

工作记忆负荷和自动化提取对小学生加法心算策略执行效果的影响

本研究选取43名小学四年级学生(18名男生和25名女生)为实验被试,探究了工作记忆负荷和自动化提取对复杂加法心算策略效果的影响.结果显示:(1)工作记忆负荷对复杂加法心算策略的影响显著,即一项加法心算策略所需的工作记忆负荷越小,该策略的执行效果越好;(2)自动化提取对加法心算策略的影响显著,即一项加法心算策略所需自动化提取的程度越高,该策略的执行效果越好;(3)工作记忆负荷和自动化提取对加法心算策略效果的交互作用显著,表现为在自动化提取水平较高的情况下,工作记忆负荷的大小对心算策略执行效果的影响差异不显著;而在自动化提取水平较低的情况下,工作记忆负荷小的心算策略的执行效果显著优于工作记忆负荷大的心算策略的执行效果.     

国外有关异种移植与伦理学的讨论

今天,医学界的许多问题已经在公众调查方面很公开了。异种移植在成为一种临床治疗手段后,势必也将带来激烈的讨论。国外有关这一方面的讨论较多,主要集中在以下几个方面。在60年代早期,外科医生尝试了用黑猩猩和狒狒的肾、心及肝进行异种移植,早期的研究工作多集中在异种移植的技术可行性及操作过程。在当时,有关异种移植的伦理学问题尚未提出。1984年,在Ｂａｉｌｅｙ及其同事完成了一例狒狒心脏移植到一新生儿体内后,伦理学的问题如“一石激起千层浪”,顿时在美国医学界引起争论。在那时,由于缺少供体,所以在器官短缺的前提下,有关伦理学的…     

Gender and the prerogatives of dating and marriage: An experimental assessment of a sample of college students

Experimental data were used to study the amount of support men and women have to pursue nonsexual and sexual activities without their partner in the contexts of dating and marriage. Attention was also focused on whether a partner's independent behavior would be seen as less acceptable in marriage than in dating. The results showed that marriage did reduce a partner's right to engage in outside involvements. However, only males saw marriage as more restrictive than dating. Moreover, these restrictions were not directed at women primarily, but were directed at both male and female target persons. Where differences were found between male and female prerogatives in marriage and dating, they appeared to favor females, providing evidence that among college students some of the structures associated with intimate relationships supported women's interests over men's.Thanks go to Barry Markovsky and Lorraine Dorfman for their helpful comments.     

When a kiss is not just a kiss: Relating violations of consent in kissing to rape myth acceptance

This study examined the relationship rape attitudes have to violations of consent in kissing. We found that the association between rape myth acceptance and responses to violations of consent in kissing was significant regardless of whether these violations took place within the context of a first date, long-term dating, or marriage. We also found that male subjects had higher rape myth acceptance than females and were more supportive of a man's right to violate a woman's consent in kissing. Finally, the association between gender and responses to forced kissing was significant independent of the context in which the forced kiss occurred.     

The statistical interaction of cerebral specialization and integration in the interpretation of dynamic brain images

Two constructs of brain function, namely cerebral specialization and integration, have been examined in the analysis of blood flow and metabolic function resulting from dynamic imaging procedures. The purpose of the current paper is to illustrate the interaction of these two constructs at the statistical level. Because of the statistical interaction, it is argued that the currently accepted statistical evidence for cerebral specialization is, in fact, partially a function of the degree of regional cerebral integration. Therefore, found asymmetries of flow or rate may be solely a function of cerebral integration. These points are discussed with respect to developing a better understanding of stimulus/brain/behavior relations.