Role of conditioned reinforcers in the initiation,maintenance and extinction of drug-seeking behavior

The development of a secondary reinforcer as a result of associating a neutral stimulus (buzzer) with intravenous (IV) doses of morphine was studied in rats. Secondary reinforcement developed in the absence of physical dependence and followed the association of the stimulus with either response-contingent or non-contingent injections of morphine. Strength of the conditioned reinforcer, measured in terms of responding on a lever for the stimulus plus infusion of saline solution, was proportional to the unit dosage of morphine employed in pairings of buzzer and drug. When extinction of the lever-press response for IV morphine was conducted (by substituting saline for morphine solution) in the absence of the conditioned reinforcing stimulus, it was seen later that the stimulus could still elicit lever responses, until it too had been present for a sufficient interval of non-reinforced responding. Similarly, extinction of the response for morphine by blocking its action with naloxone in the absence of the stimulus did not eliminate the conditioned reinforcement. Another study showed that a passive, subcutaneous (SC) dose of morphine served to maintain lever-pressing on a contingency of buzzer plus sahne infusion. Furthermore, the stimuli resulting from the presence of morphine (after a SC injection) were able to reinstate the lever-responding with only the buzzer-saline contingency when such responses had previously been extinguished. Moreover, it was shown thatd-amphetamine could restore responding under the same conditions, and that morphine could also do so for rats in which the primary reinforcer had beend-amphetamine. It is suggested that animal data such as these show that procedures designed for the elimination of human drug-taking behavior must take into account secondary reinforcers as well as the primary reinforcer(s).     

An analysis of mutual assistance

Why should community psychology be interested in mutual assistance? Mutual assistance organizations represent not an alternative to professional care by an addition to resources in the community of a kind that makes for a more competent community (Iscoe, 1974). Mutual assistance also reflects the values of empowerment that many community psychologists accept as primary (Rappaport, 1981). For those persons who suffer with conditions that may be attributed to oppressive social environments, there is no alternative to collective political and social action to produce change. The developing mutual assistance movement provides an unparalleled opportunity to enhance our understanding of the meaning and significance of social support and the conditions under which people change. Those of us in the field have every reason to embrace this movement for it is truly in keeping with the vision of community psychology.     

Optimal appropriateness measurement

The test-taking behavior of some examinees may be so idiosyncratic that their test scores may not be comparable to the scores of more typical examinees. Appropriateness measurement attempts to use answer patterns to recognize atypical examinees. In this report appropriateness measurement procedures are viewed as statistical tests for choosing between a null hypothesis of normal test-taking behavior and an alternative hypothesis of atypical test-taking behavior. Most powerful tests for inappropriateness are described together with methods for computing their power. A recursion greatly simplifying the calculation of optimal test statistics is described and illustrated.The work reported in this article was supported by United States Office of Naval Research contracts N00014-79C-0752, NR 154-445 and N00014-83K-0397, NR 150-518, Michael V. Levine, Principal Investigator.     

Criteria for psychiatric hospitalization: A checklist approach

The decision to hospitalize a psychiatric patient is often a source of controversy. This fact is reflected in the Connecticut Mental Health Center’s program of quality assessment. The center conducts individual, retrospective chart review using a 32-page checklist of normative criteria. The primary purpose of this portion of the chart review system is to highlight those cases in which a patient may have been hospitalized unnecessarily. We present and analyze the cumulative data from 300 cases for which the criteria-for-hospitalization scale was completed. We conclude that the scale is an efficient instrument and is convenient for justifying hospitalization. We suggest minor revisions in the scale and speculate upon its as-yet-untapped research potential.     

Individual differences for sex differences in achievement attributions?

Past research has found a self-defensive bias in males and a self-derogatory bias in female achievement attributions. Dispositional explanations for these differences were examined in the present study. Subjects completed measures of Need for Achievement, Self-Esteem, Fear of Success, Attitudes Toward Women, and Androgyny. They later competed in same- or mixed-sex pairs on an anagram task which was prearranged in difficulty so that one subject clearly defeated his/her partner. Consistent with past research, males were more likely to attribute their outcomes to ability, and less likely to attribute their outcomes to effort and luck, than were females. Achievement motivation was the most consistently successful predictor of these sex differences.     

Lateral asymmetries in the naming of words and corresponding line drawings

Laterally displaced line drawings and the words which name these drawings were tachistoscopically presented to adult subjects. For words, as expected, a right visual field-left hemisphere advantage was obtained. For line drawings, in contrast to previous studies which have typically reported a right visual field-left hemisphere advantage, no visual field asymmetry was found. The absence of a visual field asymmetry for line drawings is consistent with reports of a shift toward greater right hemisphere involvement in the recognition of pictographic as compared to phonetic writing systems and concrete/imageable words as compared to abstract/nonimageable words. Further, the present results seem consistent with findings on picture recognition and naming abilities in brain-damaged patients.