McEwen-Induced Modulation of Endocrine History: A Partial Review

In endless facets of physiology, there are points of homeostatic balance, such that too much or too litttle of something can both be deleterious (i.e., an "inverse U" pattern). This is particularly true when considering glucocorticoids (GCs), the adrenals steroid secreted during stress. In the first part of this paper, I review a number of realms in which a paucity and an excess of GCs are both damaging. Some findings are classical (for example, concerning GC effects upon body weight), while some are quite recent and have considerable implications for both physiology and pathophysiology (for example, inverse U's of GC actions in the realm of immunity and neuronal survival). The second part of the review considers the far thornier issue of how such inverse U's of GC actions are generated on a cellular and molecular level. One solution that has evolved, primarily in the hippocampus within the nervous system, involves the presence of two different types of receptors for GCs within the same cells; so long as the two receptors have very different affinities and mediate opposing effects on some cellular endpoint, an inverse U will emerge. The second solution, found in a number of peripheral tissues, involves GCs having opposing effects on the amount of some signal being generated (e.g., an immune cytokine) and the sensitivity of target tissues to that signal; under conditions that appear to be physiologically relevant, inverse U's emerge from this pattern as well. The final section of this review considers the enormous role played by Bruce McEwen in the emergence of this literature. I suggest that while much of this obviously has to do with the facts that have come from his group, another substantial contribution is from his steadying and supportive personality, the veritable embodiment of homeostatic balance.     

Marital conflict patterns: Links with family conflict and family members’perceptions of one another

The goal of this study was to explore the effects of marital conflict on conflict patterns in the family, and on family members’perceptions of one another. Sixty‐eight two‐parent families with adolescent twins participated, with parents reporting on the conflict patterns used by the marital dyad, and by themselves in interaction with each of their twins, and adolescent twins reporting on their interactions with each other. In addition, all four family members engaged in a videotaped decision‐making interaction and then made global ratings of each other on five dimensions. Links were obtained between marital conflict patterns and parent‐child conflict patterns, and between parent‐child conflict patterns and those used in sibling relationships. In contrast, marital conflict patterns were unrelated to sibling conflict patterns. Similarly, links were found between marital conflict and fathers’perceptions of their children, and between father‐child conflict and children's perceptions of each other. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical models of conflict resolution and the transmission of conflict patterns within the family.     

PURE TIME PREFERENCE

Pure time preference is a preference for something to come at one point in time rather than another merely because of when it occurs in time. In opposition to Sidgwick, Ramsey, Rawls, and Parfit we argue that it is not always irrational to be guided by pure time preferences. We argue that even if the mere difference of location in time is not a rational ground for a preference, time may nevertheless be a normatively neutral ground for a preference, and this makes it plausible to claim that the preference is rationally permitted.     

Developmental and sex-related differences in preschoolers' affective decision making

This study investigated developmental and sex-related differences in affective decision making, using a two-deck version of Children's Gambling Task administered to 3- and 4-year-old children. The main findings were that 4-year-old children displayed better decision-making performance than 3-year-olds. This effect was independent of developmental changes in inductive reasoning, language, and working memory. There were also sex differences in decision-making performance, which were apparent only in 3-year-old children and favored girls. Moreover, age predicted awareness of task and the correlation between the latter and decision-making performance was significant, but only in 4-year-old children. This study thus indicates that there is a remarkable developmental leap in affective decision making, whose effects are apparent around the age of 4, which according to our results, also marks the age when the correlation of declarative knowledge and decision-making performance becomes significant.     

Career Development Consultation Skill Training by Counselors for Teacher Mentors

This article presents a career development consultation skill training program for enhancing the professional growth of beginning teachers by master teacher mentors trained by counselors and counselor educators.     

Equity and marital satisfaction over the family life cycle

Marital satisfaction and perceptions of global marital equity were assessed in a sample of 373 Australian husbands and wives drawn from four phases of the family life cycle: preparenthood, childrearing, launching, and the empty nest. For wives only, satisfaction levels across successive phases described the U-shaped curve predicted from previous research. Sex differences emerged in perceptions of marital equity: During childrearing and the empty nest, more wives than husbands experienced equity; and in all phases except preparenthood, inequitable marriages were more likely to produce overbenefit for husbands and underbenefit for wives. For the sample as a whole, and for the preparenthood and childrearing groups individually, marital satisfaction was predicted both by the relative level of benefit a respondent gained from marriage, and by how closely the balance of exchange in the marriage matched strict equity. During launching, however, relative benefit eclipsed strict adherence to the rule of equity as a predictor of satisfaction, whereas during the empty nest phase, strict equity eclipsed relative benefit. Possible explanations for these life-cycle variations are discussed.