Conditions for positive and negative recencies in running memory-span recognition

A positive recency effect in a running-span recognition procedure was obtained in Experiment 1 for hits and for intratrial false alarms. In running recall procedures, recency does not fit well with an active updating hypothesis. In Experiment 2, in which the beginning of the target set was marked with a cue upon presentation, the recency effects disappeared. In Experiments 3 and 4 participants were forced to maintain 2 items in memory until the last one was presented for recognition. These three items were the target set. When the last item presentation was uncertain—because of the variable length list—an unexpected negative recency effect appeared. An explanation for this change from positive to negative recency is offered based on the sharing of attentional resources put forward by others for similar procedures.     

Individual Breaches of Environmental Laws in Cases from Public Administration Files

The characteristics of environmental transgressions and transgressors involved in 1,505 files handled by 4 public administrations were assessed. These administrations were in charge of environmental law enforcement in a highly protected setting, across federal, state, island, and municipality jurisdictions. Special attention was given to the transgressors' written responses to administrative sanctions included in the files. These were analyzed integrating the approaches of neutralization techniques and of accounts as strategies of conflict management. Results suggest that most environmental transgressions under study were carried out by private individuals in the personal domain of everyday life, and that transgressors' accounts of environmental transgressions were short, straightforward, and questioned the legitimacy of the environmental law being broken.     

Diferencias individuales en autocontrol dentro del paradigma de tolerancia a la estimulación aversiva

Resumen

En esta investigación se evaluó el papel que juegan las diferencias individuales en una situación de tolerancia a la estimulación aversiva. Ochenta sujetos divididos en alto-autocontroladores y bajo-autocontroladores, según la puntuación obtenida en la Escala de Autocontrol de Rosenbaum, fueron sometidos a una prueba de presión por frío. Los objetivos fundamentales del estudio fueron: (1) comprobar si sujetos altos y bajos en autocontrol presentan diferencias al enfrentarse al cold-pressor en tolerancia y malestar percibido; (2) comprobar el tipo de estrategias que utilizan los sujetos altos y bajos para enfrentarse a la estimulación aversiva, y su eficacia; (3) comprobar si la utilización de una estrategia distractiva-agradable o de una estrategia que resalta la propia competencia del sujeto frente a la situación aversiva afecta diferencialmente a los sujetos altos y bajos en autocontrol en las medidas de tolerancia del sujeto frente a la situación aversiva afecta diferencialmente a los sujetos altos y bajos en autocontrol en las medidas de tolerancia y malestar percibido. Los resultados de los análisis de covarianza realizados no mostraron diferencias significativas entre los sujetos altos y bajos en autocontrol en el tiempo de tolerancia al agua helada, ni en el malestar percibido durante la prueba, aunque en esta última variable se encontró una interacción significativa entre grupos experimentales y niveles de autocontrol. Se discuten estos resultados.     

Overt head movements moderate the effect of depressive symptoms on mood regulation

A dysfunction in the regulation of negative mood states is one of the core symptoms of depression. Research has found that levels of depression are associated with the intensity of the mood-regulation deficit. The present study aimed to explore the role the body plays in mood-regulation processes. More specifically, we studied whether head movements can influence mood persistence in dysphoric states. Subsequent to a sad-mood induction, participants were presented with a set of positive pictures immediately after performing either vertical (i.e., nodding) or lateral (i.e., shaking) head movements. We considered changes in mood from before to after the experimental task as an index of the effectiveness of mood regulation. As expected, the results showed that higher initial levels of depressive symptoms were associated with greater persistence of sad mood. More importantly, this association was present in participants who shook their heads, but not in those who nodded. These results show that body movements can contribute to mood-regulation processes, thus expanding our knowledge of the psychopathology of mood disorders.     

Introduction: The Meaning of Work

Abstract

The theme of this special issue is how cultural, societal, group, and individual factors shape what working has meant, means, and is going to mean in future societies. Concepts and empirical data from the Meaning of Working study (MOW, 1987), an eight-country comparison of work-related attitudes and values, and from complementary follow-up studies, serve as the “red thread” or empirical basis throughout the issue. The original MOW (1987) study and some of the follow-up studies reported in this issue are based on a heuristic model for the subjective meaning of work, which is briefly discussed in the first paper by Ruiz Quintanilla and Wilpert. However, as nearly all of the discussants point out, and Heller's paper tries to discuss specifically, there is still a lot of theoretical work to do. The studies reported in this issue provide some empirical data bases and point towards new and crucial questions that are raised by the results. On the other hand, this issue also wants to contribute to a focused discussion about alternative conceptions of the meaning of work and its central role in understanding the concept of work. Since the way we conceptualize a particular problem issue crucially determines the kind of answers and explanations we derive, as Brief points out in his discussant paper, a thorough and lively discussion about how we are to understand work (and “non-work”), what meaning it has in a person's life, what significance the meaning attributed to work has, and by what processes work attains its meaning for society in general, becomes of utmost importance. Moreover, in the light of European integration across cultures and the global internationalization of organizations, differences in cultural contexts for the meaning of work take on a particularly urgent problem for better understanding. Finally, Fineman in his discussant paper raises the crucial point, that the basic epistemological assumptions that guided both the basic conceptual framework and the methodology used in the MOW (1987) and the follow-up studies reported in this issue can be questioned. He argues that these assumptions allow only a rather restricted view of the meaning of work and forego many options in addressing more holistic perspectives of work and its meaning generating processes. Given the fact that meaning is in principle a product of subjective interpretation processes, the question about what social processes form the basis for the meaning of work and its consequences, as well as what epistemological assumptions make sense in trying to understand better the holistic nature of work and its meaning, must be finally addressed.

In this sense this issue attempts: (1) to contribute to the ongoing debate on the concept of meaning of work; as well as (2) to invite interested researchers and practitioners in W & 0 psychology to join in this debate. This journal strongly encourages such a debate and will publish quality rejoinders, commentaries, and critical alternatives to the problems raised in this special issue.     

Book reviews

Dewsbury, D.A. (Ed.). (1990). Contemporary issues in comparative psychology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. Pp. xiii + 509. ISBN 0-87893-137-6. £21.95 (paperback).

Goudie, A.J., & Emmett-Oglesby, M. W. (Eds.). (1989). Psychoactive drugs: tolerance and sensitization. Clifton, NJ: The Humana Press. Pp. 600. ISBN 0-89603-148-9. £46.00.

Edwards, G. & Lader, M. (1990). The nature of drug dependence. Society for the Study of Addiction Monograph No 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 240. ISBN 0-19-261772-9. £30 (hardback).

Lieberman, D.A. (1990). Learning, behavior and cognition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Inc. Pp. xx + 500. ISBN 0-534-12318-X. £16.95 (hardback).

Krasnegor, N.A. & Bridges, R. S. (Eds.). (1990). Mammalian parenting. Biochemical, neurobiological, and behavioral determinants. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 502. ISBN 0-19-505600-0. £60.00 (hardback)     

Development of a new fear of hypoglycemia scale: FH-15

Hypoglycemia is the most common adverse event associated with insulin treatment in diabetes. The consequences of hypoglycemia can be quite aversive and potentially life threatening. The physical sequelae provide ample reason for patients to fear hypoglycemia and avoid episodes. For these reasons, our purpose in this study was to develop a new measure that explores specific fear of hypoglycemia (FH) in adult patients with type 1 diabetes and to examine its psychometric properties. The instrument developed to assess FH was initially made up of 20 items, of which 18 were negative and 2 were positive, assessed on a 5-point Likert scale (1-5). This scale was completed by 229 patients with type 1 diabetes. Additionally, a structured interview and a closed question called subjective fear of hypoglycemia were included as diagnostic criteria. A factor analysis employing the principal-components method and promax rotation was carried out, resulting in a new scale composed of 15 items. Three factors (fear, avoidance, and interference) were obtained and explained 58.27% of the variance. The scale showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .891) and test-retest reliability (r = .908, p < .001), as well as adequate concurrent and predictive validity. The cutoff score that provided the highest overall sensitivity and specificity was set at 28 points. The Fear of Hypoglycemia 15-item scale (FH-15) demonstrated good reliability and validity. This study suggests that the new instrument may serve as a valuable measure of specific FH for use in research and clinical practice.     

Neuroticism and cardiovascular response in women: evidence of effects on blood pressure recovery

Neuroticism is a unifying personality trait that underlies a number of psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease. One means by which Neuroticism may influence health risk is through effects on cardiovascular reactivity and recovery. Eighty-six women scoring high or low in Neuroticism took part in a paired interpersonal stressor task with a laboratory confederate. Conditions differed on the basis of the confederate's interpersonal behavior: hostile, neutral, or friendly. Neuroticism interacted with condition to affect blood pressure recovery such that women high in Neuroticism showed less recovery following hostile interactions and greater recovery following friendly interactions. Main effects of Neuroticism on anger and anxiety reactivity were found. Results indicate that Neuroticism is relevant to cardiovascular health in the context of valenced social interactions. Implications for future study of Neuroticism and interpersonal stressors as risk factors for cardiovascular disease are discussed.     

Cross-domain analogies as relating derived relations among two separate relational networks

Contemporary behavior analytic research is making headway in analyzing analogy as the establishment of a relation of coordination among common types of trained or derived relations. Previous studies have been focused on within-domain analogy. The current study expands previous research by analyzing cross-domain analogy as relating relations among separate relational networks and by correlating participants' performance with a standard measure of analogical reasoning. In two experiments, adult participants first completed general intelligence and analogical reasoning tests. Subsequently, they were exposed to a computerized conditional discrimination training procedure designed to create two relational networks, each consisting of two 3-member equivalence classes. The critical test was a two-part analogical test in which participants had to relate combinatorial relations of coordination and distinction between the two relational networks. In Experiment 1, combinatorial relations for each network were individually tested prior to analogical testing, but in Experiment 2 they were not. Across both experiments, 65% of participants passed the analogical test on the first attempt. Moreover, results from the training procedure were strongly correlated with the standard measure of analogical reasoning.