Reward Influence on the Heart: Cardiovascular Response as a Function of Incentive Value at Five Levels of Task Demand

This study examined cardiovascular effects of incentive value in men and women confronted with cognitive challenges that were more and less difficult to meet. Participants performed computer memory tasks varying in difficulty from low to high, with instructions that they could earn chances toward a $100 prize or $10 prize by attaining a 90% success rate. Analysis of cardiovascular responses assessed during work revealed an interaction between difficulty and incentive value for heart rate. Participants' heart rate responses were proportional to task difficulty and unaffected by incentive value in all conditions except for the most difficult one. Where difficulty was greatest, $100 participants showed relatively high heart rate responsiveness, whereas $10 participants showed low heart rate responsiveness. This heart rate finding corroborates and extends cardiovascular results from previous experiments, and lends further support to the view that cardiovascular responses will be proportional to incentive value only under some task conditions.     

Putting Parenting in Perspective: A Discussion of the Contextual Factors That Shape Parenting Practices

Child and family researchers have long recognized parenting as making an important contribution to child development. However, little is known about the factors that shape parenting itself, particularly factors outside the family. This article examines the literature on variables that comprise the context in which parenting occurs, and summarizes what is known about how three contextual factors (ethnicity/culture, family socioeconomic status, and neighborhood/community) influence parenting practices. Implications for future research on parenting, clinical interventions designed to improve parenting, and policy decisions affecting parenting are discussed.     

Methodological Overview of the Parents Matter! Program

We present an overview of the methodology employed in the Parents Matter! Program. Information on the following aspects of the program is presented: participant eligibility and recruitment; consenting procedures and administration of assessments; development and utilization of measures in the assessments; study design; intervention procedures; facilitator characteristics and training; procedures to assess treatment fidelity assessment; and procedures utilized to enhance retention of study participants.     

The Moral Disengagement Scale: Extension with an American Minority Sample

This study extended an investigation by A. Bandura, C. Barbaranelli, G. V. Caprara, and C. Pastorelli (1996) by examining the structure, reliability, and correlates of the Moral Disengagement Scale (MDS), which measures disengagement from moral self-sanctions. Furthermore, the role of moral disengagement in the association between parenting and child behavior was examined. Two hundred and forty-five African American single-parent mothers and one of their children (mean age = 11.4 years) participated in the study. The MDS had similar factor structure, internal consistency, and demographic correlates as those reported by A. Bandura et al. (1996) with an Italian sample of children. The MDS also correlated with delinquent and aggressive child behavior, and moral disengagement partially mediated the relationship between parenting and child delinquent behavior.     

Homogeneous group therapy of borderline personality disorder

The authors maintained a time-limited, diagnostically homogeneous psychotherapy group of borderline patients for one year. The group progressed through prototypical stages of group development, but each phase was marked by variations of the aggressive drive and defenses against aggression that are characteristic of this disorder. The group provided a well-suited forum for the exploration of suicidal and homicidal impulses and the development of an observing ego. Despite the limits on generalizability from this group, it appears that group psychotherapy can be a valuable adjunctive modality for some borderline patients.Paper presented at the American Psychiatric Association Conference, Montreal, May, 1988.     

Pubertal Timing and Youth Internalizing Psychopathology: The Role of Relational Aggression

The current study examined relational aggression as a potential mechanism that explains the association between off-time pubertal development and internalizing problems in youth. Youth gender was also examined as a moderator for the association between these variables. It was hypothesized that early pubertal maturation would be associated with higher levels of relationally aggressive behavior which, in turn, would be associated with elevated levels of internalizing problems. Parents of 372 children between the ages of 8 and 17 were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Parents responded to demographic information about themselves, as well as information about their child’s pubertal timing, relationally aggressive behavior, and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Findings indicated that early pubertal timing was associated with higher levels of anxiety directly, and higher levels of both anxiety and depressive symptoms indirectly through higher levels of relational aggression. In all but one of the pathways examined, gender was not found to moderate the associations between the study variables of interest. This study is the first to examine relational aggression as a mechanism by which early pubertal timing leads to internalizing problems. The findings suggest that relational aggression could be a target for intervention among early developing youth who are at risk for internalizing problems.     

An infrared device to monitor discrete ambulatory and stereotypic behaviors

An electronic device that can detect discrete ambulatory and stereotypic behaviors of animals is described. The system involves a minimum of two infrared (IR) beams, each connected to a set/reset flip-flop or latch. The initial occlusion of an IR beam simultaneously sets a latch, delivers a locomotion pulse output, and resets any previously set latch whose IR beam is not occluded. A set latch causes its associated IR beam to be refractory to further locomotion movements until reset by the occlusion of a second IR beam. All beams are continuously responsive to stereotypic activity.