Assessing functions of stimuli associated with rich‐to‐lean transitions using a choice procedure

Under fixed‐ratio schedules, transitions from more to less favorable conditions of reinforcement (rich‐to‐lean transitions) usually generate extended pausing. One possible explanation for this effect is that stimuli associated with rich‐to‐lean transitions are aversive and, thus, extended pausing functions as escape. The purpose of this study was to characterize further the aversive function of different transitions, and the stimuli associated with them, by allowing pigeons to choose to complete select ratios in the presence of either a mixed‐schedule stimulus or a transition‐specific multiple‐schedule stimulus. The mixed schedule was preferred during transitions that signaled an upcoming lean reinforcer (rich‐to‐lean and lean‐to‐lean), whereas the multiple schedule was preferred during transitions that signaled an upcoming rich reinforcer (lean‐to‐rich and rich‐to‐rich). These findings support the notion that stimuli associated with rich‐to‐lean (and to some extent lean‐to‐lean) transitions can function aversively; whereas stimuli associated with other transitions (e.g., lean‐to‐rich and rich‐to‐rich) can function as conditioned reinforcers. When the opportunity to choose between schedule‐correlated stimuli was available, however, choice latency was controlled exclusively by the multiple‐schedule stimulus. That is, the opportunity to select the mixed schedule did not attenuate rich‐to‐lean pauses, suggesting that extended pausing may be more than simply escape.     

Counseling Intimate Partner Abuse Survivors: Effective and Ineffective Interventions

This study obtained feedback from intimate partner abuse survivors (N = 104) regarding helpful and unhelpful aspects of therapy. The survivors’ narrative accounts and answers to quantitative questions were subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis. Results suggest that survivors sought therapy to understand themselves and the abuse they endured. Clinicians’ diagnoses of codependency or assertions that survivors chose the relationship weakened the therapeutic alliance and reduced the perceived helpfulness of therapy.     

The effects of interpersonal relationship and character gender on adolescents' resolutions of moral dilemmas

An experimental study using two forms of the Defining Issues Test [Rest, J. R. (1979). Revised manual for the Defining Issues Test. Minneapolis: Moral Research Project, University of Minnesota.], modified to present either a high degree of relationship among characters or a low degree of relationship among characters, was conducted with 114 college students. The gender of the characters in the dilemmas was also systematically varied. Both male and female students evidenced principled (Stages 5 and 6) reasoning more often when dilemma characters were male than when story characters were female. Participant gender and relationship condition were significant factors in the frequency of Stage 4 reasoning. Male students in the low-relationship condition evidenced Stage 4 (“Law and order”) reasoning most often when story characters were male, while male students, like female students in all conditions, showed Stage 4 reasoning more often when female characters were presented in the high-relationship condition. The degree to which moral decisions were supportive of an affected character revealed more support when story characters were female than when they were male. Results indicate that even in hypothetical situations, moral judgments vary with the gender of the person being judged and to some degree with the relationships among those involved in the dilemma. These findings are consistent with a view that multiple, equally valid approaches to moral judgment might exist and affect the development of male and female students differently.     

Reviews: Books, Art

YOGA AND PSYCHOLOGY. By Howard Coward. 115 pp. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. $16.95. CASE STUDIES IN INFANT MENTAL HEALTH: RISK, RESILIENCY AND RELATIONSHIPS. Edited by Joan J. Shirilla and Deborah J. Weatherston. 203 pp. Washington, D.C.: Zero to Three, 2002. $32.95. JACOB'S SHADOW: CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES ON MASCULINITY. By Herbert Anderson. 173 pp. Louisville, KY: Bridge Resources, 2002. $18.95. LEONARDO DA VINCI. By Sherwin B. Nuland. 170 pp. New York: Viking, 2002. $19.95. FAITH AND THE PLACEBO EFFECT: AN ARGUMENT FOR SELF-HEALING. By Lolette Kuby. 323 pp. Novato, CA: Origin Press, 2001. $23.00. NOTHING PERSONAL, JUST BUSINESS: A GUIDED JOURNEY INTO ORGANIZATIONAL DARKNESS. By Howard F. Stein. Westport, CT: Quorum/Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. FAITH BEYOND FAITH HEALING: FINDING HOPE AFTER SHATTERED DREAMS. By Kimberly Winston. 115 pp. Brewster, MA: Praraclete Press, 2002. A SHADOW OF GLORY: READING THE NEW TESTAMENT AFTER THE HOLOCAUST. Edited by Tod Linafelt. New York and London: Routledge, 2002. LOVE IS STRONGER THAN DEATH: THE MYSTICAL UNION OF TWO SOULS. By Cynthia Bourgeault. 222 pp. Great Barrington, MA: Lindisfarne Books, 2001. $14.95. Moving Pictures     

A parent intervention with a growth mindset approach improves children's early gesture and vocabulary development

Socioeconomic disparities in children's early vocabulary skills can be traced back to disparities in gesture use at age one and are due, in part, to the quantity and quality of communication children are exposed to by parents. Further, parents' mindsets about intelligence contribute to their interactions with their children. We implemented a parent gesture intervention with a growth mindset component with 47 parents of 10‐month‐olds to determine whether this approach would increase parents' use of the pointing gesture, infants' use of pointing, and child vocabulary growth. The intervention had an effect on parent gesture such that by child age 12‐months, parents who received the intervention increased in their pointing more than parents in the control condition. Importantly, the intervention also had a significant effect on child gesture use with parents. There was no main effect of the intervention on child vocabulary. Further, the effect of the intervention on pointing was stronger for parents who endorsed fixed mindsets at baseline, and had an added benefit of increased vocabulary growth from 10–18 months for children of those parents who endorsed fixed mindsets. Incorporating growth mindset approaches into parenting interventions is encouraged.