A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF BRIEF RULES, A TIMER, AND PREFERRED TOYS ON SELF-CONTROL

Some children make impulsive choices (i.e., choose a small but immediate reinforcer over a large but delayed reinforcer). Previous research has shown that delay fading, providing an alternative activity during the delay, teaching participants to repeat a rule during the delay, combining delay fading with an alternative activity, and combining delay fading with a countdown timer are effective for increasing self‐control (i.e., choosing the large but delayed reinforcer over the small but immediate reinforcer). The purpose of the current study was to compare the effects of various interventions in the absence of delay fading (i.e., providing brief rules, providing a countdown timer during the delay, or providing preferred toys during the delay) on self‐control. Results suggested that providing brief rules or a countdown timer during the delay was ineffective for enhancing self‐control. However, providing preferred toys during the delay effectively enhanced self‐control.     

When local processing increases the appeal of healthy options

People often encounter self-control challenges in complex everyday environments in which objects that promote a given goal (e.g., to eat healthily) are mixed together with objects that obstruct that goal. For example, healthy and unhealthy food choices are often mixed together in restaurant menus. Because local processing facilitates attention to low-level details, we expect that it may play an important role in these complex situations. In the present studies, we test the hypothesis that local processing supports self-control when goal items and temptations are contextually paired. As predicted, our findings revealed that local processing (relative to global processing) increased evaluations of healthy items when those items were presented together with unhealthy items. As hypothesized, this effect of local processing only occurred when healthy and unhealthy foods were presented as complementary – not competing – options, suggesting that local processing may increase evaluations of healthy options by decreasing the extent to which individuals accept environmental cues that healthy and unhealthy foods belong together. These findings support recent research demonstrating that despite strong evidence of the advantages of global processing for self-control, local processing may also support self-control efforts in some important everyday situations.     

Religious Involvement Measurement Model in a National Sample of African Americans

This study examined the factor structure of a brief measure of religious involvement developed previously in research with African American women. Telephone interview methods were used with a national sample of both African American women and men (N = 2,370). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the distinction between religious beliefs and religious behaviors factors and indicated that the factor loadings were equivalent for women and men. Women reported higher levels of religious involvement than men. These results support the validity of this relatively brief instrument for assessing these two dimensions of religious involvement for both African American women and men.     

Locus of Control Beliefs Mediate the Relationship Between Religious Functioning and Psychological Health

Theistic and spiritually based beliefs and behaviors have been demonstrated to consistently predict physical and mental health, although the psychological processes underlying these relationships are unclear. This study investigated associative relationships and pathways of mediation between religious functioning, locus of control (LOC) and health. The sample consisted of 122 Christians (79 women, 43 men) who were predominately Catholic, ranging in age from 18 to 80 (M = 45.47, SD = 15.0). Participants were recruited from churches in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, and completed a questionnaire package measuring (1) psychological and physical health, (2) the religious variables of awareness of God, instability and impression management, and (3) God, internal and external LOC domains. Results indicated that awareness of God and internal LOC were associated with better health, whereas external LOC and instability were associated with poorer health. God LOC and impression management were not significantly associated with health. Sobel tests were used to analyse mediation hypotheses. Internal LOC was found to mediate the relationship between awareness of God and better psychological health, and external LOC was found to mediate the relationship between instability and poorer psychological health. These findings are of considerable clinical significance.     

What Is Legal Philosophy?

This article delineates some of the main issues that are debated by philosophers of law. It explores the connections between legal philosophy and other areas of philosophy, while also seeking to specify the distinctiveness of many of the concerns that have preoccupied philosophers of law. It illustrates its abstract points with examples focused on the separability of law and morality, the nature of the rule of law, the nature of rights, justifications for the imposition of punishment, and the identification of basic legal entitlements.     

Health Programming for Clergy: An Overview of Protestant Programs in the United States

The health of clergy is important, and clergy may find health programming tailored to them more effective. Little is known about existing clergy health programs. We contacted Protestant denominational headquarters and searched academic databases and the Internet. We identified 56 clergy health programs and categorized them into prevention and personal enrichment; counseling; marriage and family enrichment; peer support; congregational health; congregational effectiveness; denominational enrichment; insurance/strategic pension plans; and referral-based programs. Only 13 of the programs engaged in outcomes evaluation. Using the Socioecological Framework, we found that many programs support individual-level and institutional-level changes, but few programs support congregational-level changes. Outcome evaluation strategies and a central repository for information on clergy health programs are needed.     

Self-other rating agreement and leader-member exchange (LMX): a quasi-replication

Data from a sample of 83 elected community leaders and 391 direct-report staff (resulting in 333 useable leader-member dyads) were reanalyzed to test relations between self-other rating agreement of servant leadership and member-reported leader-member exchange (LMX). Polynomial regression analysis indicated that the self-other rating agreement model was not statistically significant. Instead, all of the variance in member-reported LMX was accounted for by the others' ratings component alone.     

Decreased aggressive and locomotor behaviors in Betta splendens after exposure to fluoxetine

The failure of sewage treatment plants to remove pharmaceuticals such as fluoxetine from waste water has become a concern given that these products are being detected in the surface waters of many countries of the world. The effects of fluoxetine in sub-lethal doses on the neural systems and behaviors of aquatic life are worthy of investigation. This study investigated the effects of sub-lethal amounts fluoxetine dissolved in water on the aggressive and locomotor behaviors of 44 male Betta splendens. Fish treated with 705 microg/l of fluoxetine and 350 microg/l of fluoxetine generally demonstrated significant decreases in locomotion and number of aggressive attacks compared to 0 microg/l of fluoxetine (controls) on Days 11 and 19 of drug exposure and persisted for at least 13 days after removal of fluoxetine. Consistent with decreases in the number of aggressive attacks, there was a significant increase in aggression-response time to a perceived intruder for treated males on Days 11 and 19 and persisted for 6 days following removal of fluoxetine. However, the differences in aggressive and locomotor behaviors seen in the fluoxetine-treated groups were indistinguishable from controls three weeks following drug removal.     

Goal-directed decision making as probabilistic inference: a computational framework and potential neural correlates

Recent work has given rise to the view that reward-based decision making is governed by two key controllers: a habit system, which stores stimulus-response associations shaped by past reward, and a goal-oriented system that selects actions based on their anticipated outcomes. The current literature provides a rich body of computational theory addressing habit formation, centering on temporal-difference learning mechanisms. Less progress has been made toward formalizing the processes involved in goal-directed decision making. We draw on recent work in cognitive neuroscience, animal conditioning, cognitive and developmental psychology, and machine learning to outline a new theory of goal-directed decision making. Our basic proposal is that the brain, within an identifiable network of cortical and subcortical structures, implements a probabilistic generative model of reward, and that goal-directed decision making is effected through Bayesian inversion of this model. We present a set of simulations implementing the account, which address benchmark behavioral and neuroscientific findings, and give rise to a set of testable predictions. We also discuss the relationship between the proposed framework and other models of decision making, including recent models of perceptual choice, to which our theory bears a direct connection.