A Preliminary Examination of Motivating Operation and Reinforcer Class Interaction

The interaction effects between motivating operations and reinforcer classes were evaluated using a superordinate multielement design. Two individuals with developmental disabilities participated. Participants were exposed to a motivating operation condition—pre‐session access until rejection or pre‐session restriction for 24 h—followed by a reinforcer assessment, in which the reinforcer response requirements progressively increased. Reinforcers, stimuli representative of primary, conditioned, and token reinforcers, were available on alternating sessions. The results showed that pre‐session access and restriction produced reliable evocative and abative effects across reinforcer classes. For one of the participants, the effectiveness of the motivating operation appeared to be influenced by the reinforcer class. The interaction effects between motivating operations and reinforcer classes are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Behavioral Activation and Inhibition as Moderators of the Relationship Between Music Video-Viewing and Joyriding Attitudes

Recently, a growing number of studies have shown a relationship between exposure to risk-glorifying media and risky driving perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. The present study contributes to this line of research by examining emerging adults' behavioral approach system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) as moderators of the relationship between music video-viewing and joyriding attitudes. A cross-sectional survey among a sample of 539 emerging adults (ages 18–24) was conducted to examine the relationships between these constructs. Advanced moderation analyses indicated that, after controlling for sensation-seeking, physical aggression, gender, BIS, and BAS, the relationship between music video-viewing and joyriding attitudes only existed for respondents with a low BIS profile. Thus, low sensitivity to punishment functioned as a condition for the relationship between music video-viewing and joyriding attitudes. Furthermore, the results provided initial evidence for the hypothesis that the relationship between sensation-seeking and joyriding attitudes is explained by respondents' BAS scores. Accordingly, it seems advisable to include BIS and BAS in future media research. The present study also has important implications for the construction and planning of prevention campaigns, which are extensively discussed.     

Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action as Ethnic Behavior: Part 1. Construction of the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory

This article reports the construction of a new survey—specifically, the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory (BEBI)—designed to measure ethnic speech and ethnic action as separate, yet related, aspects of individuals’ ethnic behavior. Using Tajfel’s social identity theory as a conceptual frame of reference, this study sought an answer to the research question of how many factors actually are measured by the BEBI, and tested the hypothesis that a two-factor model (i.e., Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action as two correlated factors) would provide significantly better goodness of fit to the correlational data than would a one-factor model (i.e., Ethnic Behavior as one undifferentiated factor). Across one pilot sample (n = 101) and two main samples (n = 120 for Sample 1, n = 148 for Sample 2), the study found that not only did the BEBI measure two factors at most (i.e., Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action) but, consistent with the hypothesis, the two-factor model yielded better goodness of fit than did the one-factor model. Implications for the conceptualization and measurement of Verkuyten’s “ways of ethnicity” are discussed.     

The Sexual Division of Labor and the Split Paycheck

This essay takes up an apparently minor idea of Susan Moller Okin's Justice, Gender, and the Family—that employers should split the paycheck of wage‐earning husbands between employees and their stay‐at‐home spouses—and suggests that it actually threatens to undermine Okin's entire argument by perpetuating the most central cause of women's inequality by Okin's own account: the sexual division of labor. Recognizing the vital contributions that Okin's seminal work made and the impact that it had on the field of feminist philosophy and political theory, the essay explores the ethical, political, and philosophical problems with this solution to the dire problems of gender inequality and injustice that Okin correctly identifies. The essay suggests that her commitment to liberalism may have resulted in a commitment to an inadequate vision of how to solve the problems of gender inequality, and offers other possibilities that Okin could have pursued instead that sustain her strong commitment to liberalism.     

The effects of self-focus on attentional biases in social anxiety:An ERP study

Cognitive theories of social anxiety disorder suggest that biased attention plays a key role in maintaining symptoms. These biases include self-focus and attention to socially threatening stimuli in the environment. The goal of this study was to utilize ERPs that are elicited by a change detection task to examine biases in selective attention (i.e., N2pc) and working memory maintenance (i.e., contralateral delay activity; CDA). Additionally, the effect of self-focus was examined using false heart rate feedback. In support of the manipulation, self-focus cues resulted in greater self-reported self-consciousness and task interference, enhanced anterior P2 amplitude and reduced SPN amplitude. Moreover, P2 amplitude for self-focus cues was correlated with reduced task performance for socially anxious subjects only. The difference in P2 amplitude between self-focus and standard cues was correlated with social anxiety independent of depression. As hypothesized, socially anxious participants (n = 20) showed early selection and maintenance of disgust faces relative to neutral faces as indicated by the N2pc and CDA components. Nonanxious controls (n = 22) did not show these biases. During self-focus cues, controls showed marginal evidence of biased selection for disgust faces, whereas socially anxious subjects showed no bias in this condition. Controls showed an ipsilateral delay activity after being cued to attend to one hemifield. Overall, this study supports early and persistent attentional bias for social threat in socially anxious individuals. Furthermore, self-focus may disrupt these biases. These findings and supplementary data are discussed in light of cognitive models of social anxiety disorder, recent empirical findings, and treatment.     

How Robust is the Influence of Causal Explanation on Clinical Judgments? Assessments in Structured Clinical Interviews

When causal life-event explanations for disorder symptoms are available, clinicians tend to explain away those symptoms (Ahn, Novick, &; Kim, 2003 Ahn, W., Novick, L. R., &; Kim, N. S. (2003). Understanding behavior makes it normal. Psychonomic Bulletin Review, 10(3), 746–752. doi:10.3758/BF03196541[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Meehl, 1973 Meehl, P. E. (1973). Why I do not attend case conferences. In P. Meehl (Ed.), Psychodiagnosis: Selected papers (pp. 225–302). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. [Google Scholar]), eschewing formal diagnostic guidelines such as the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013 American Psychiatric Association [APA]. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). We asked whether this effect is attenuated in the context of a structured diagnostic clinical interview procedure, which deliberately directs evaluators' attention to symptoms alone, or whether it is robust enough to continue to emerge. Across two experiments, lay evaluators given causal life-event explanations for disordered behaviors gave them lower judgments of abnormality and need for treatment compared to evaluators not given such explanations, regardless of whether they used a structured clinical interview. Thus, causal life-event explanations may have significant impact on clinical evaluations regardless of the mode of assessment. Implications for the clinical utility of structured interviews and the role of life-event context in diagnosis and classification are discussed.     

Behavioral intervention to reduce physical restraint of adolescents with developmental disabilities

Physical restraint procedures sometimes are approved for implementation in human service settings for children and adults who have developmental disabilities and seriously challenging behaviors. Although use of restraint may be clinically justified to manage behavior disorders and prevent injury to self and others, procedures should be evaluated to decrease, and possibly eliminate, such methods. This study addressed the effects of restraint‐reduction procedures with two adolescents who had developmental disabilities and displayed severe aggression. Clinically significant reductions in the frequency of physical restraint were achieved through a treatment package that included the behavior‐specific criterion for the application of restraint and antecedent control approaches. The implementation of strategic interventions to decrease physical restraint utilization is discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.