The role of learning history in current sick-role behavior and assertion

It has previously been suggested that sick-role or illness behavior has learned components which may contribute to the maintenance of an individual's negative physical condition. The present study was designed as an elaboration on the role of learning history in the production of current sick-role behavior. A total of 180 college students responded to an inventory which consisted of 15 questions. The inventory looked at parents as role models for assertion and illness behavior, as well as the individual's own history of assertiveness, illness and positive reinforcement for illness behavior. Multiple stepwise regressions were performed on the data. The results indicated the best predictors of current work or school avoidance were their own history of stopping work and absence from school as a child, their fathers' work history of work avoidance, and low assertion. The best predictors for an individual's self report of positive reinforcement for illness behavior were a history of similar reinforcement as a child and their mothers history of attention for illness behavior. The fathers' work avoidance when ill was the third predictor for positive reinforcement for illness behaviour in the females. Finally, the best predictors for the male Ss' current assertion were assertion as a child, the mothers' assertion and a low frequency of school absence and work avoidance as a child. For females, the best predictors of current assertion were assertion as a child and a high frequency of current work and school avoidance. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for future research.     

Aggressiveness and dominance in captive cock red grouse

A method for measuring the aggressiveness of captive cock red grouse is described. A cock's aggressiveness varied according to season, type of cage and social environment. A method for ranking the dominance order of cocks in a group is also described. Dominance ranks remained stable for up to two years. Correlations between the aggressiveness of isolated cocks and their dominance ranks when in a group were positive but weak. Aggressiveness and dominance should be clearly distinguished. Both aggressiveness and dominance were related to the size of cock's combs, and implants of testosterone increased all three. In situations where a cock's aggressiveness changed, comb size changed in the same direction. The aggressive behaviour of captive cocks shows several major parallels with that of wild cocks.     

A Systematic Review Into the Psychological Causes and Correlates of Plagiarism

Interventions that are designed to stem plagiarism do not always override the motivation of individuals to cheat and, therefore, may not diminish misconduct. To inform more effective approaches, we conducted a systematic review to clarify the psychological causes of plagiarism. This review of 83 empirical papers showed that a specific blend of circumstances may foster plagiarism: an emphasis on competition and success rather than development and cooperation coupled with impaired resilience, limited confidence, impulsive tendencies, and biased cognitions. Fortunately, whenever students feel their life and studies align to their future aspirations, many of these circumstances tend to dissipate.     

Item-specific proactive interference in olfactory working memory

We examine item-specific olfactory proactive interference (PI) effects and undertake comparisons with verbal and non-verbal visual stimuli. Using a sequential recent-probes task, we show no evidence for PI with hard-to-name odours (Experiment 1). However, verbalisable odours do exhibit PI effects (Experiment 2). These findings occur despite above chance performance and similar serial position functions across both tasks. Experiments 3 and 4 apply words and faces, respectively, to our modified procedure, and show that methodological differences cannot explain the null finding in Experiment 1. The extent to which odours exhibit analogous PI effects to that of other modalities is, we argue, contingent on the characteristics of the odours employed.     

Similarities and differences in mothers' and observers' ratings of infant security on the Attachment Q-Sort

This study examined the similarities and differences in maternal and observer Attachment Behavior Q-Sort ratings (AQS; Waters, 1995) and their relations to dimensions of the developmental ecology - maternal sensitivity, infant irritability, parental stress and psychosocial risk. Data was gathered from low risk (adult mothers; N=44) and high risk mother-infant dyads (adolescent mothers; N=83) when infants were aged 6, 10 and 15 months old, attachment being assessed at 15 months by both mothers and independent observers. A common factor was extracted from both sorts and served to operationalize the similarities between mother and observer ratings. Regressions were conducted to extract maternal and observer AQS scores that were unrelated to each other to represent the difference between the two sorts. Correlation analyses indicated that the common AQS factor was moderately linked to maternal sensitivity and parental stress, and showed a weak association to psychosocial risk and infant irritability. Residual maternal scores showed greater correlations with infant irritability and parental stress than did observer residual scores. Observer scores showed a greater correlation with psychosocial risk than maternal scores. Results suggest that common AQS variance presents a pattern of associations with ecological variables that is coherent with attachment research. Variance related to irritability, stress and risk appear to drive the differences between maternal and observer observations.     

Solving the Color Incompatibility Problem

It is commonly held that Wittgenstein abandoned the Tractatus largely because of a problem concerning color incompatibility. In this paper, I solve the color incompatibility problem and argue that the central program of the Tractatus can in fact be accomplished.