Enhancing the training integrity of human service staff using pyramidal behavioral skills training

This experiment used a pyramidal training model to evaluate the effects of behavioral skills training (BST), delivered in a 1-time group-training format, on the extent to which 25 human service staff implemented BST when training others how to implement behavioral procedures. Results indicated that (a) the training workshop increased BST integrity to mastery levels for the majority of participants with varying levels of education, organizational positions, and training experience, (b) the training effects generalized to teaching an untrained skill, and (c) high levels of BST integrity maintained at follow-up 4 to 6 weeks after training for all 3 participants with whom probes were conducted. Moreover, participants indicated high levels of satisfaction with both the training workshop and BST as a training procedure.     

Male HIV-1 transgenic rats show reduced cocaine-maintained lever-pressing compared to F344 wildtype rats despite similar baseline locomotion

The HIV-1 transgenic (Tg) rat model is valuable for understanding HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and accompanying substance use and misuse. Tg and F344/NHsd wildtype (WT) rats were allowed to self-administer intrajugular cocaine. For the first 7 sessions, neither genotype self-administered cocaine (0.1 mg/kg/infusion) on a fixed ratio 1 schedule. We thus implemented a lever–cocaine “autoshaping” session followed by a series of manipulations changing dose and reinforcement schedule. Tg rats self-administered much less cocaine than WT rats throughout the study. Of 8 Tg rats, 5 modestly increased self-administration from sessions 36–50. Of those, only 3 showed a lever discrimination. Of 10 WT rats, 8 acquired robust self-administration by session 19; all WT rats self-administered cocaine by the end of the study. WT and Tg rats had similar baseline locomotor activity in the self-administration chamber suggesting that the low levels of cocaine intake in the Tg rats did not reflect a nonspecific motor impairment in this rat strain. Concomitant measurement of activity with self-administration revealed activity increases that followed increased cocaine intake. That relation held in Tg rats. Therefore, the present study provides evidence that HIV-1 Tg rats are less sensitive to the reinforcing effects of cocaine than their F344 WT counterparts.     

The influence of chemical cues on the territorial prior residence effect in convict cichlids (cichlasoma nigrofasciatum Günther)

The importance of accumulated chemical cues on the occurrence of the territorial prior residence effect was investigated in two experiments using adult convict cichlids (Cichlasonul nigrofasciatum). In the first experiment, pairs of fish, matched on a number of criteria, were randomly assigned to three independent treatment conditions in which (1) the territorial marker (pot or clump of plants) was removed just prior to a direct encounter in the aquarium of the resident (pair member in whose aquarium the encounter took place) with accumulated chemical cues remaining intact; (2) the marker was removed, as well as the chemical cues; or (3) the marker was present, but the chemical cues were removed. Results showed that a significant prior residence effect occurred when the marker was present, but did not occur in either condition in which the marker was removed. A second experiment, in which the marker was removed and the gravel substrate altered, also did not reveal a signficant prior residence effect. Apparently, the territorial resident recognizes his territory by using certain visual cues, with accumulated chemical cues being neither necessary nor sufficient in this process.     

A Test of the Links between Family Interference with Work, Job Enrichment and Leader–Member Exchange

Nous avons testé l'hypothèse selon laquelle le degré d'interférence entre la vie familiale et le travail (FIW) chez des sujets "suiveurs" varie en fonction de la qualité de la relation leader-suiveur dans le monde du travail (Qualité LMX) et de leur niveau de valorisation du travail. La relation entre ce niveau et la qualité LMX a aussi étéévaluée. Si le FIW, en accord avec les résultats relatifs à la théorie de l'échange social, est lié négativement, et à la qualité LMX, et au niveau de valorisation du travail des suiveurs, ce dernier est corrélé positivement à la qualité LMX conformément aux prédictions principales de la théorie LMX. Cependant, bien que le FIW se rapporte directement au niveau de valorisation du travail, nous avons pu montrer qu'il est lié indirectement à la qualité LMX par le truchement du niveau de valorisation du travail.
We tested whether followers' frequency of family interference with work (FIW) relates to the quality of the leader–follower work relationship (LMX quality), and to followers' reported level of job enrichment. We also tested the relationship between followers' job enrichment and LMX quality. We found that that FIW relates negatively to LMX quality and to job enrichment, supporting arguments based on social exchange theory, and that followers' job enrichment relates positively to LMX quality, supporting one of the key predictions of LMX theory. We also found that while FIW relates directly to job enrichment, it relates only indirectly to LMX quality through job enrichment.     

Making sense of diversity in the workplace: organizational justice and language abstraction in employees' accounts of diversity-related incidents

To discern patterns of employee sense-making about workplace diversity, the authors analyzed 751 natural language accounts of diversity incidents from 712 workers in one department of a large organization. Six generic incident types emerged: discrimination, representation, treatment by management, work relationships, respect between groups, and diversity climates. Consistent with hypotheses, incidents that respondents viewed as negative, accounts from women, and those involving members of respondents' in-groups were more likely to cite justice issues. Partially consistent with research on the linguistic intergroup bias, both negative and positive accounts involving out-group members and accounts from men were more likely to be expressed using abstract verb forms. The authors discuss future opportunities to integrate research on diversity, justice, and the linguistic category model.     

Personality and self-regulation: trait and information-processing perspectives

This article introduces the special issue of Journal of Personality on personality and self-regulation. The goal of the issue is to illustrate and inspire research that integrates personality and process-oriented accounts of self-regulation. The article begins by discussing the trait perspective on self-regulation--distinguishing between temperament and personality accounts--and the information-processing perspective. Three approaches to integrating these perspectives are then presented. These range from methodological approaches, in which constructs representing the two perspectives are examined in integrated statistical models, to conceptual approaches, in which the two perspectives are unified in a holistic theoretical model of self-regulation. The article concludes with an overview of the special issue contributions, which are organized in four sections: broad, integrative models of personality and self-regulation; models that examine the developmental origins of self-regulation and self-regulatory styles; focused programs of research that concern specific aspects or applications of self-regulation; and strategies for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of self-regulation.     

Reinstatement of fear to an extinguished conditioned stimulus: two roles for context

The authors studied the role of context in reinstatement. Freezing was reinstated when the conditioned stimulus (CS) was extinguished in 1 context and rats moved to another context for reexposure to the shock unconditioned stimulus (US) and test. It was also reinstated (rather than renewed) when rats were shocked in the extinction context and moved to another context for test. This reinstatement was CS specific and reduced by nonreinforced exposures to the extinction context. Rats shocked in the context in which a stimulus had been preexposed froze when tested in another context. These findings suggest 2 roles for context in reinstatement: conditioning of the test context (M. E. Bouton, 1993) and mediated conditioning by the extinction context (P. C. Holland, 1990).     

Psychoanalytic patients in the U.S., Canada,and Australia: II. A DSM-III-R validation study

A study was conducted to validate our previous work on the DSM-III-R disorders diagnosed in patients in psychoanalysis in the U.S., Canada, and Australia and to determine which specific mood, anxiety, and personality disorders were the most common in these patients. The earlier study consisted of three surveys of psychoanalytic practice that together obtained data on 1,718 patients, through extensive mail surveys to analysts in the three countries. In the validation study, 206 patients were diagnosed using a different technique. Analysts similar in important respects to those who participated in the original surveys rated patients diagnostically before and after DSM-III-R training. After training, no significant changes appeared in the rates for any of the specific mood disorders. For the thirty disorders examined, training effects decreased the identification of the generalized anxiety disorder, and increased the identification of three personality disorders: avoidant, dependent, and personality disorder not otherwise specified. Thus, analysts slightly underdiagnosed the number of personality disorders, and some "anxious" patients appear to have qualified for personality disorders. Some limitations of the DSM-III-R notion of narcissistic personality are discussed, as are the importance and stability of the self-defeating (masochistic) personality disorder. The most common Axis I disorder in psychoanalytic patients was dysthymia, followed by major depression, recurrent. This study reinforces the findings of the original three surveys. Minor corrections were developed to adjust the original three surveys.     

Children's implicit knowledge of harmony in Western music

Three experiments examined children's knowledge of harmony in Western music. The children heard a series of chords followed by a final, target chord. In Experiment 1, French 6- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target was sung with the vowel /i/ or /u/. In Experiment 2, Australian 8- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target was played on a piano or a trumpet. In Experiment 3, Canadian 8- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target sounded good (i.e. consonant) or bad (dissonant). The target was either the most stable chord in the established musical key (i.e. the tonic, based on do, the first note of the scale) or a less stable chord. Performance was faster (Experiments 1, 2 and 3) and more accurate (Experiment 3) when the target was the tonic chord. The findings confirm that children have implicit knowledge of syntactic functions that typify Western harmony.