Politeness and social signals

In the literature, politeness has been researched within many disciplines. Although Brown and Levinson's theory of politeness (1978, 1987) is often cited, it is primarily a linguistic theory and has been criticized for its lack of generalizability to all cultures. Consequently, there is a need for a more comprehensive approach to understand and explain politeness. We suggest applying a social signal framework that considers politeness as a communicative state. By doing so, we aim to unify and explain politeness and its corresponding research and identify further research needed in this area.     

Does overall reinforcer rate affect discrimination of time‐based contingencies?

Overall reinforcer rate appears to affect choice. The mechanism for such an effect is uncertain, but may relate to reinforcer rate changing the discrimination of the relation between stimuli and reinforcers. We assessed whether a quantitative model based on a stimulus‐control approach could be used to account for the effects of overall reinforcer rate on choice under changing time‐based contingencies. On a two‐key concurrent schedule, the likely availability of a reinforcer reversed when a fixed time had elapsed since the last reinforcer, and the overall reinforcer rate was varied across conditions. Changes in the overall reinforcer rate produced a change in response bias, and some indication of a change in discrimination. These changes in bias and discrimination always occurred quickly, usually within the first session of a condition. The stimulus‐control approach provided an excellent account of the data, suggesting that changes in overall reinforcer rate affect choice because they alter the frequency of reinforcers obtained at different times, or in different stimulus contexts, and thus change the discriminated relation between stimuli and reinforcers. These findings support the notion that temporal and spatial discriminations can be understood in terms of discrimination of reinforcers across time and space.     

Theory and Practice: Narratives of psychotherapy in modern English literature

Narrative offers us a unique opportunity to enter an imaginative space in which to make sense of experiences and emotions in a playful way. In this study we posed the question: ‘How do novelists portray counselling in contemporary fiction?’. We found that the most effective practitioners were those who formed a strong, meaningful therapeutic relationship with their clients and who adopted a reflective, critical stance on their own practice. With regard to theoretical orientation, the most favourable accounts were of existentialist–phenomenological and cognitive–behavioural approaches. Client-centred and psychodynamic approaches were mainly portrayed negatively. Overall the importance of the therapeutic relationship as overriding considerations of schoolism was confirmed. The implications for psychotherapy and psychological counselling are discussed.     

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Coach Contact During a Brief Online Intervention for Distressed Couples

The negative impacts of relationship distress on the couple, the family, and the individual are well‐known. However, couples are often unable to access effective treatments to combat these effects—including many couples who might be at highest risk for relationship distress. Online self‐help interventions decrease the barriers to treatment and provide couples with high quality, research‐based programs they can do on their own. Using a combined multiple baseline and randomized design, the present study investigated the effectiveness of the Brief OurRelationship.com (Brief‐OR) program with and without staff support in improving relationship distress and individual functioning. Results indicated the program produced significant gains in several areas of relationship functioning; however, these gains were smaller in magnitude than those observed in Full‐OR. Furthermore, effects of Brief‐OR were not sustained over follow‐up. Comparisons between couples randomized to Brief‐OR with and without contact with a staff coach indicated that coach contact significantly reduced program noncompletion and improved program effects. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

The melody of surprise: maternal surprise vocalizations during play with her infant

Two groups of mothers and their infants (24 infants, mean age=3.5 months and 24 infants, mean age=5.5 months) were video‐ and audio‐taped in their homes while playing with a Jack‐in‐the‐box. The mean fundamental frequency of spontaneous surprise exclamations of mothers when opening the toy were analysed, and infant and maternal facial expressions of surprise were coded in three regions of the face. A t‐test established that significantly more of the older children in comparison with younger children showed surprise (t=?2.96, df=46, p<0.005, 2‐tailed). Twenty‐nine per cent of the younger infants, in comparison with 67% of the older children showed facial expressions of surprise. A t‐test of maternal pitch height (Hz) indicated that mothers exclaimed in surprise with a higher pitch when the child did not show a surprise facial expression (mean=415.61 Hz) in comparison with the child showing surprise (mean=358.97 Hz; t=2.9, df=46, p=0.006, 2‐tailed). A multiple regression established that infant's expression was a stronger predictor of maternal vocal pitch than was the age of the infant. These results are discussed in terms of maternal use of emotional expressions as ‘social signals’. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Melioration revisited: a systematic replication of Vaughan (1981)

Organisms that behave so as to forfeit a relatively higher overall rate of reinforcement in favor of a relatively lower rate are said to engage in suboptimal choice. Suboptimal choice has been linked with maladaptive behavior in humans. Melioration theory offers one explanatory framework for suboptimal choice. Melioration theory suggests behavior is controlled by differences in local reinforcer rates between alternatives. Vaughan (1981) arranged two experimental conditions in which maximizing the overall rate of reinforcement required behavior that was compatible, or incompatible, with melioration. Vaughan found pigeons allocated more time to a locally richer alternative even when doing so resulted in suboptimal choice. However, Vaughan did not show whether these effects could systematically reverse and did not provide within‐session data to show that choice across short time spans remains under the control of differences in local reinforcer rates. The present study used pigeons to replicate and extend Vaughan's findings. We investigated shifts in overall‐ and within‐session choice across repeated conditions, according to arranged local contingencies. Behavior systematically followed changes in local contingencies for most pigeons. Within‐session data suggests that, providing differences in local reinforcer rates are discriminated, pigeons will allocate more time to a locally richer alternative, even if this leads to suboptimal choice. These findings facilitate the more confident use of similar procedures that investigate how melioration contributes to suboptimal choice.     

The Meanings and Manifestations of Religion and Spirituality among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Adults

The present study employed a mixed method approach in the effort to explore religious and spiritual practices among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, as well as the meanings ascribed to the terms religiosity and spirituality by LGBT adults. Data were collected via a cross-sectional survey consisting of open- and close-ended items among 498 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) identified individuals attending an annual Pride event in a large northeastern city. Both quantitative and qualitative findings suggested that consistent with other studies, spirituality was defined largely in relational terms (e.g., in terms of one’s relationship with God and with self). Religion, in contrast, was defined largely in terms of communal worship and in terms of its negative influences in the lives of individuals and communities. For this sample of LGBT persons, spiritual identities were more pronounced than religious ones, and this pattern may be explained by their understanding of the spiritual self in relation to prosocial engagement and interconnectedness with others, the world around them, and the universe. Further, religious affiliation and practices were explained, in part, by the religion in which the individual was raised, level of educational attainment, as well as the developmental stage in which the person is currently situated. The findings highlight the reality that a substantial number of LGBT individuals may remain committed to religious and spiritual life, which may be related to a motivation to make sense of one’s place in the world especially in light of societal misunderstandings and intolerance to LGBT individuals.