The Legacy of Lawrence Kohlberg: Implications for Counseling and Human Development

Despite the great contribution by Lawrence Kohlberg to our understanding of moral development, counselors are only beginning to appreciate fully the implications of his developmental psychology for the practice of counseling and human development. Drawing on the collective body of Kohlberg's work, seven basic assumptions are shown to have direct relevance for conceptualizing counseling from a constructivist developmental approach.     

Escape from freedom: Choosing not to choose in pigeons

Preference for the availability of food-reinforcement alternatives was investigated with Rachlin and Green's (1972) concurrent-chains self-control paradigm. The terminal link of one chain made available a choice between immediate access to food for T seconds and delayed access to food for 4 seconds. The terminal link of the other chain provided only delayed access to food. When T was reduced to .25 seconds, pigeons began to select the delayed-access key in both terminal links. Even so, the pigeons strongly preferred constraint over choice. This effect could not be accounted for by differences in the actual amount of food obtained in the terminal links, by avoidance of the immediate-reinforcement key when not presented as part of a choice, or by avoidance of a multi-key terminal link. Rather, constraint was preferred over freedom. Apparently, the preference for choice is determined by the particular type of choice offered.     

Racial Mistrust and Deviant Behaviors Among Ethnically Diverse Black Adolescent Boys1

While it has been suggested that mistrust of the dominant White society may be an important protective factor for some members of racial minorities, the question of whether mistrust may also be related to nonnormative behaviors among minority members has not been explored. Using survey data from Miami, Florida, this study empirically tests this hypothesis among a sample of African American, Haitian, and other Caribbean island Black adolescent boys. Bivariate analyses suggest a strong relationship between racial mistrust and conventional forms of delinquency for all three ethnic groups. These findings also held in multivariate analyses in which six traditional predictors of deviance were statistically controlled. The authors conclude that racial mistrust adds a new dimension to empirical prediction models. In addition, they conclude that issues associated with racial mistrust should be considered when developing and implementing prevention strategies.     

The transfer of specific and general consequential functions through simple and conditional equivalence relations

The purpose of this study was to examine the transfer of consequential (reinforcement and punishment) functions through equivalence relations. In Experiment 1, 9 subjects acquired three three-member equivalence classes through matching-to-sample training using arbitrary visual forms. Comparison stimuli were then given conditioned reinforcement or punishment functions by pairing them with verbal feedback during a sorting task. For 8 of the 9 subjects, trained consequential functions transferred through their respective equivalence classes without additional training. In Experiment 2, transfer of function was initially tested before equivalence testing per se. Three of 4 subjects showed the transfer without a formal equivalence test. In Experiment 3, 3 subjects were given training that gave rise to six new three-member conditional equivalence classes. For 2 of the subjects, the same stimulus could have either a reinforcement or punishment function on the basis of contextual cues that defined its class membership. Experiment 4 assessed whether equivalence training had established general or specific consequential functions primarily by adding novel stimuli in the transfer test. Subjects treated even novel feedback stimuli in the transfer test as consequences, but the direction of consequential effects depended upon the transfer of specific consequential functions through equivalence relations.     

Covert sensitization, stimulus relevance and the equipotentiality premise

Covert sensitization and related cognitive aversive techniques have been widely used and reviewed but, to date, the issue of the quality and relevance of the aversive imagery selected has yet to be investigated. In the present study, Ss were given a target substance to consume and then presented with narratives designed to elicit either nausea, anxiety or relaxation. The nausea and anxiety scenes were rated as equally aversive but there was a significant reduction in consumption only within the taste-nausea imagery group. These results are consistent with those obtained from the study of taste aversion in infra-human Ss where taste has been shown to associate preferentially with nausea. The present results call into question the validity of the ‘equipotentiality premise’ in cognition. The implications of these findings for the clinical application and evaluation of covert sensitization are discussed.     

Collective views of vaccination predict vaccine hesitancy and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine

We examined the association between sociodemographic factors, views of vaccines as being an individual choice to protect oneself versus a collective choice to protect others, general vaccine hesitancy, and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. In a sample of adults (N = 619; 33% non-white), we showed that demographic factors explain significant variance in both vaccine hesitancy and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Viewing vaccines as an individual choice to protect oneself explained additional variance in vaccine hesitancy. However, people who viewed vaccines as a collective choice to protect others showed both less vaccine hesitancy and greater willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. These findings suggest that promoting prosocial attitudes about vaccinations may decrease vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccine uptake.