Facial expressions of pain in muscle-contraction headache patients

Using a judgment and component analysis of facial actions, 14 muscle-contraction headache (MCH) patients were videotaped in headache and nonheadache states. In addition, patients were also required to undergo a resting physiological assessment (frontalis electromyography, temporal blood volume pulse, and heart rate), reaction-time task, and complete self-report measures of pain state and mood. Headache and nonheadache state of MCH patients were reliably identified by 20 observers. Characteristics of facial expressions that occurred most frequently in the headache state included furrowed eyebrows, closed eyes, slow eye blinks, lip pursuing, facial grimacing, and flat facial affect. Headache state was also associated with increased latency to respond to an auditory tone and mood disturbances, but no differences in baseline physiological activity were observed. Our findings provide support for the utility and clinical relevance of judgment and component analysis of facial actions in MCH patients.     

The response of South African professional psychology associations to apartheid

Professional psychology associations in South Africa have overtly and covertly furthered the aims of apartheid. Guidance about the ethical obligations of psychologists in the South African context has been singularly lacking, and as a result blacks have not been attracted to the profession of psychology in sufficient numbers to administer to psychological needs of the client population. The political dimension of psychological practice in South Africa needs to be addressed directly so that healing strategies relevant to the burgeoning racial conflict in South Africa can be implemented.     

A cross-cultural test of the personality integration hypothesis1

This study attempted to validate the psychological integration hypothesis by comparing the levels of psychological functioning of individuals from four cultural groups on three dimensions of personality. The personality attributes investigated were field-dependence/independence cognitive style, tolerance of ambiguity (an affective style variable) and machiavellianism (an index of stylistic orientation in interpersonal relationships). Subjects were 218 first-level supervisors from five industrial plants in Auckland, New Zealand. Comparisons of mean group scores on each personality variable showed that a similar rank order among the groups held for each personality variable. It was also found that, for the sample as a whole, there were positive intercorrelations between the personality variables. The symmetrical rank ordering of the groups on the personality variables was considered to indicate that members of each group had attained relatively similar levels of psychological development on each personality attribute. The relatively low levels of intercorrelations between the personality variables were held to indicate that they were measuring separate areas of psychological functioning.     

Choice of extinction-signalling stimuli by rats

Rats in a two-lever situation were exposed to alternating periods of intermittent reinforcement and extinction. Extinction periods were either unsignalled or were signalled by a response-produced stimulus. The signal was sometimes a stimulus paired with food delivery in the reinforcement periods and sometimes a stimulus that occurred only in extinction periods. Both kinds of signal accelerated extinction relative to the unsignalled condition. When the signal was the stimulus paired with food in reinforcement periods, the rats tended to prefer the lever that gave that signal even though the signal accelerated extinction. There was no comparable effect for the stimulus that occurred only in extinction periods; when this signal was contingent on only one of the two levers, the rats either avoided it (Experiment 3) or were indifferent (Experiment 4). It is concluded that a stimulus can be a “secondary reinforcer” as measured by preference, even though it decreases resistance to extinction; the implications are discussed with reference to formal theories of choice behavior.     

A motivational environment for behaviorally deviant junior high school students

A contingency management program was established in a junior high school to better manage and educate students having histories of severe misconduct. School administrators selected 46 eighth-graders having multiple suspensions for misbehavior. Students (N=32) in two of the schools remained in traditional programs, serving as controls, whereas students (N=14) in the third school participated in a token reinforcement program. Reinforcers provided in the afternoon were contingent upon achievement and discipline during morning academic periods. Home-based reinforcers were established to support school behavior. Compared with the control group, significant reductions in negative school behavior as well as greater increases in academic achievement were obtained for the treatment group, thus supporting the efficacy of contingency management for adolescent school misbehavior.Valuable assistance in developing the reinforcement program and curriculum materials was provided by William Brown, principal of the Anne Arundel County Learning Center. Thanks are also due: Dottie Dpwling and Joe Gentile, the teachers in the program; John Jedlicka, principal of Stemmers Run Junior High; and Donnie Williams, research assistant.     

Modifiability of attention: Effects of dimensional salience and overtraining on discrimination shifts

Previous results have shown that there is an increased difference between intradimensional (ID) and extradimensional (ED) shifts when subjects shift to a nonpreferred dimension. Fisher and Zeaman (1973) have indicated that such findings can be explained not only by their attention-retention theory, which assumes that attention is completely modifiable, but also by models which assume that attention has a fixed, nonmodifiable component. The present experiment showed that the larger ID-ED difference with a nonsalient dimension is solely attributable to the improved performance of the ID shift condition, a results which is more consistent with the assumption of complete modifiability of attention.