Conflict Between Firemen and Ghetto Dwellers: Environmental and Attitudinal Factors1

During the past few years urban fire companies have responded to a vastly increased number of false alarms, especially from lower income areas. In a preliminary attempt to understand this phenomenon, two studies were conducted. In the first, several environmental variables, in addition to average neighborhood income, reported harrassments of firemen, and type of alarm box, were correlated with false alarm frequencies for randomly selected alarm boxes in lower income sections of Brooklyn. Results of a step-wise multiple regression analysis indicated that (a) a linear combination of six environmental variables accounts for 73% of the variance in false alarms, (b) this relationship is not due simply to differences in average neighborhood income, and (c) false alarms are associated geographically with harassments. The results suggested that false alarms should be interpreted as expressions of protest. The second study explored the beliefs and attitudes of ghetto residents and revealed that young nonwhites showed most hostility to the fire department. Although most respondents expressed positive attitudes toward firemen, many believed they do unnecessary damage; and some respondents linked this with racism. Other causes for anger not directly related to the fire department were also mentioned, including the environmental factors emphasized in the first study. The findings raise several questions amenable to social psychological investigation and suggest ways to reduce false alarms, but it seems unlikely that the problem can be solved until deeper racial and class antagonisms are reduced.     

Self-awareness and cigarette-smoking behavior

According to the theory of objective self-awareness (Duval & Wicklund, 1972), the concept of generalized drive is unnecessary, its explanatory function having been replaced by the concepts of self-evaluation and desire to be “correct”. An experiment was designed to compare alternative predictions from the drive and self-awarencess theories. Subjects listened to music in the presence of a mirror and, at another time, not in the presence of a mirror. The effect of self-consciousness on several habitual behaviors related to smoking was assessed. It was known that the subjects believed the number of cigarettes one should smoke “ideally” was significantly less than the number they actually smoked. Hence, the theory of objective self-awarencess predicts decreased smoking in the presence of the mirror, while a drive theory interpretation of self-consciousness predicts the opposite. Results generally supported the drive theory.     

Analysis of variance with Fourier analysis of coherent data

Like orthogonal polynomials, the sine and cosine components used in Fourier analysis are orthogonal under summation over equally spaced points. Therefore, they can be used in the same way as orthogonal polynomials are used with analysis of variance. They are usually used on records consisting of sequences of observations taken equally spaced in time. Analysis of variance can be performed on replicated records. The most straightforward cases occur under the following conditions: (1) The phenomenon is periodic, (2) the phenomenon is coherent (synchronized) over the various replicates, (3) the record length is an integral multiple of the fundamental period, and (4) the phenomenon is not buried too deeply in noise. Two numerical examples are examined that satisfy these conditions. Planning is illustrated for a case that violates Conditions 3 and 4.     

A family‐therapy approach to child abuse: countering resistance

Abusing and high-risk families have been seen over three years at a new treatment resource with a family therapy orientation. The families present with established resistance to any treatment intervention and many have defeated a succession of previous helping agencies. Initial typology and treatment strategies are described with the aim of more systematic selection of therapeutic techniques.     

LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF OPPOSITIONAL CHILD TREATMENT WITH MOTHERS AS THERAPISTS AND THERAPIST TRAINERS

The follow-up data reported represent a long-term (3 to 9 years out of treatment) evaluation of 40 children who were clients of the Regional Intervention Program (RIP) from 1969 to 1978. As 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds, these youngsters exhibited severe and prolonged tantrums, continual opposition to adults' requests and commands, and physical aggression toward parents. Each child and mother participated in a standardized intervention package modeled after Wahler's Opposition Child Treatment. Results from school and home-based follow-up showed that: (a) commands, demands, or requests made by parents were likely to be followed by former clients' compliance; (b) former clients' social interactions in the home were overwhelmingly positive and their nonsocial behavior was by and large appropriate; (c) parent behavior in the home was consistent with the child management skills taught many years ago; (d) there were no differences between the compliant, on-task, social interaction and appropriate/inappropriate nonsocial behaviors of former clients and randomly selected class peers; (e) there were no differences in teachers' commands, negative feedback, positive social reinforcement, and repeated commands that were directed toward either former clients or randomly selected class peers; (f) both teachers' and parents' rating of former clients on the modified Walker Problem Behavior Checklist were highly correlated; (g) there were no differences in teachers' rating of former clients and class peers; and (h) of all the studied demographic variables, only age that treatment began and family intactness were related to current levels of behavior.     

An investigation of the use of nocturnal dream reports as diagnostic indices in the assessment of family problem solving

This study investigated the use of series of nocturnal dream reports to diagnose patterns of family functioning. Five families (twenty one subjects) collected a total of 126 dreams. A Treatment Group consisted of two families undergoing family therapy whilst a Non-Treatment Group, comprising three families, was drawn from a population ranging from severely disturbed to superior family functioning. The manifest content of the dreams was analysed, qualitatively and quantitatively. The presenting problem, case history, therapeutic processes and outcome were unknown to the dream researcher. The family therapist was blind to the dream content and dream analysis. Each family was independently rated by the therapist and the dream researcher. The agreement between the two assessments was highly significant. In addition, the problem areas, family transactions and treatment outcome were correctly identified by the dream researcher. It was concluded that analyses of dream series reflect the problem areas encountered by a family system. Implications for therapeutic strategies are discussed.     

A study of the classification capabilities of neural networks using unsupervised learning: A comparison withK-means clustering

Several neural networks have been proposed in the general literature for pattern recognition and clustering, but little empirical comparison with traditional methods has been done. The results reported here compare neural networks using Kohonen learning with a traditional clustering method (K-means) in an experimental design using simulated data with known cluster solutions. Two types of neural networks were examined, both of which used unsupervised learning to perform the clustering. One used Kohonen learning with a conscience and the other used Kohonen learning without a conscience mechanism. The performance of these nets was examined with respect to changes in the number of attributes, the number of clusters, and the amount of error in the data. Generally, theK-means procedure had fewer points misclassified while the classification accuracy of neural networks worsened as the number of clusters in the data increased from two to five.Acknowledgements: Sara Dickson, Vidya Nair, and Beth Means assisted with the neural network analyses.     

Attachment Styles and Personality Disorders: Their Connections to Each Other and to Parental Divorce, Parental Death, and Perceptions of Parental Caregiving

Attachment theory was explored as a means of understanding the origins of personality disorders. We investigated whether adult attachment styles and personality disorders share a common underlying structure, and how both kinds of variables relate to family background factors, including parental death, parental divorce, and current representations of childhood relationships with parents. A nonclinical group of 1407 individuals, mostly adolescents and young adults, were surveyed about their attachment styles, parental marital status, parental mortality status, perceptions of treatment by parents in childhood, and 13 personality disorders. Results indicated substantial overlap between attachment and personality-disorder measures. Two of the personality-disorder dimensions are related to the two dimensions of the attachment space; that is, there is a two-dimensional space in which both the attachment patterns and most of the personality disorders can be arrayed. The one personality-disorder factor that is unrelated to attachment appears akin to psychopathy. Both personality disorders and attachment styles were associated with family-of-origin variables. Results are discussed in terms of encouraging further research to test the idea that insecure attachment and most of the personality disorders share similar developmental antecedents.     

Borderline personality disorder and laboratory-induced cold pressor pain: Evidence of stress-induced analgesia

Behavioral neuroscience findings regarding stress-induced analgesia may be an appropriate model for the paradoxical effects of self-mutilative pain of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). We hypothesized that BPD patients would show an exaggerated antinociceptive effect from an uncontrollable cold pressor stress, compared to persons with other personality disorders or to a nonpsychiatric control group. This hypothesis was supported. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.     

Acute Ethanol Administration Impairs Spatial Performance While Facilitating Nonspatial Performance in Rats

Acute ethanol administration produces learning and memory impairments similar to those found following lesions to the hippocampal system in rats. For example, both ethanol and hippocampal lesions impair performance on spatial learning and memory tasks while sparing performance on many nonspatial learning and memory tasks. Lesions to the hippocampal system can also alter the nature of the information that the animal uses to guide its behavior, from using spatial information to using individual cues. In the present experiment, rats were trained, while sober, to navigate on an eight-arm radial arm maze to a specific arm for food reward. During training, the rewarded arm was always in the same specific location and contained well-defined cues. After the rat learned the task, a memory test was conducted under different doses of ethanol (0.0 g/kg [saline control], 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 g/kg, intraperitoneal). On the test day the maze was rotated so that the cued arm was 90 degrees to the right of its original position. During testing, intact rats showed a significant bias to approach the place where they had been previously rewarded, even though the cue was no longer located there. Acute ethanol administration dose dependently reduced approaches to the rewarded place. However, ethanol administration did not result in increases in random choices; rather, it resulted in a dose-dependent increase in approaches to the cued arm, now in a new location. These results extend previous research showing that acute ethanol administration and lesions to the hippocampal system produce similar effects on learning and memory in rats.