The social supports of suicide attempters: The different roles of family and friends

The social support patterns of a sample of 101 suicide attempters were compared with the patterns of a control sample on the basis of structured interview data. Network characteristics and the extent of support in different functional categories were examined as to their absolute and relative power to discriminate between the suicide attempters and the controls. A clear separation of the functions of kin and of friends/acquaintances emerged. The crucial difference between the attempters and the controls lay in the number of friends with whom the subjects had agreeable everyday interactions and in the number of kin that provided crisis support, both psychological and instrumental. Other support differences between the two groups were of secondary importance. While there was no overall difference in the frequency of social interactions between the two groups, the size of the social network differed greatly. Consequences for the conceptualization and measurement of social support as well as for the prevention of suicidal behavior are discussed.     

Does nondirectional signalization of target distance contribute to navigation in the Morris water maze?

The possibility that rats can navigate in the Morris water maze by reducing the difference between the memorized platform scene and the current sensory input was tested in nine blind rats. A computerized videosystem monitored the rats' movements in the pool and converted the rat-target distance into tones the frequency of which increased in 64 equal steps from 120 Hz at 128 cm to 7680 Hz at 0 cm. During 15 days of training to find a fixed platform position from different starting points (12 trials per day) average escape latencies decreased from 39.0 to 25.4 s. The performance significantly deteriorated when the acoustic distance signalization was omitted and/or when the target position was changed form trial to trial. It is concluded that blind rats solved the task by simultaneously employing search strategy based on position responses, mapping using acoustic background beacons, and distance reduction navigation. It is argued that the various strategies are additive and that their relative significance depends of the conditions of the experiment.     

The relationship among genital herpes simplex virus, stress, and social support

Despite widespread popular belief in the activation of recurrent lesions in genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) by psychosocial stress, little empirical evidence supports that contention. This study retrospectively examined the role of stress in activation of HSV lesions as mediated by social support. Participants were 59 volunteers who had self-reported culture-positive genital HSV for at least 10 months. Measures of stress proneness (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; STAI-Trait), recent stressful events (Schedule of Recent Events; SRE), and subjective appraisal of stress (global self-rating) were administered along with measures of general social support and herpes-specific social support. When retrospective reports of HSV symptoms were examined using a multiple-regression approach, duration of disease and amount of herpes-specific social support were found to be significant moderators of the relation between stress and number of HSV recurrences in the preceding 12 months. When duration of disease was short (less than 4 years), stress (SRE) and number of recurrences were positively associated; when disease duration was longer, there was no relationship. Similarly, at low levels of herpes-specific social support, a positive relation between stress (SRE) and number of recurrences was found. However, at higher levels of herpes-specific social support, no association was found. No relation was found between stress proneness (STAI-Trait) and HSV symptoms. However, subjective appraisal (global rating) of stress in the preceding 12 months was positively and significantly correlated with reported number of recurrences. Results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications.     

Eyeblinking during autokinetic movement observed by a subject living in the up-down inverted visual world

Eyeblinking during autokinetic movement observed by one subject living in the up-down inverted visual world, was investigated. The subject wore frame-spectacles (without prisms) for the first two days and then wore up-down inverting spectacles (with prisms) for the next four days, followed by the resumption of the former frame-spectacles for one day. Eyeblinks during autokinetic movement were measured by using vertical EOG. Analysis showed (1) the occurrence of eyeblinking during autokinetic movement was not influenced by living in the up-down inverted visual world; (2) the frequency of eyeblinking during autokinetic movement significantly decreased with successive days of observation.     

Effects of up-down visual inversion on motor skills

The movement of a hand or fingers and locomotion of the body by a subject wearing prisms which inverted his visual world were investigated. A subject wore frame-spectacles (without prisms) for the first two days and then wore up-down inverting spectacles (with prisms) for the next four days, followed by wearing the former frame-spectacles again for one day. Measurements were made of skill on star-drawing, pegboard tests, and on zigzag-walking and walking up and down stairs. There were no differences on the five measures during acquisition for the four tasks, which suggests smooth progress of prism-adaptation by this man.     

Effects of living in the up-down inverted visual world on apparent movement

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a change of perceptual framework may affect the occurrence of apparent movement. Apparent movement was observed by one subject living over four days in the prismatically inverted visual world, because this situation was considered as the operation in which the subject was forced to change the perceptual framework to adapt himself to the novel environment. Apparent movement with two points was measured in vertical and horizontal configurations before wearing and after removing the prism as well as while wearing it. Analysis showed significant effects of prism-wearing on the occurrence of apparent movement in both vertical and horizontal configurations. Although further elaboration is required, an hypothesis was suggested from the viewpoint of the loss of visual position constancy.     

Effect of reaction time condition on EMG activities of the biceps brachii muscle in elbow flexion and forearm supination

Under simple- and choice-RT conditions, the biceps brachii muscle was examined in 8 healthy male subjects to determine how the temporal and spatial characteristics of elbow flexion and forearm supination differed at the initial phase of EMG activity and whether preparation or the presence of response uncertainty influenced the EMG outputs of the two movements. In the simple-RT condition, RT of supination was significantly faster than that of flexion but EMG activity of supination was less than that of flexion. In contrast, in the choice-RT condition, RT of flexion was significantly faster than that of supination but EMG activity of flexion was significantly reduced compared to supination. These findings indicate that advanced preparation or motor set facilitates the differentiation of RTs and EMG activities of the response movements and that response uncertainty causes a significant change in the temporal and spatial specificity of both elbow flexion and forearm supination.     

Race and Moral Judgment Development Scores

Black and White college students were studied to determine reactions to moral dilemmas when the race of the central character in the dilemma was changed.