Intracerebral scopolamine administration attenuates Pavlovian heart rate conditioning in the rabbit

Scopolamine hydrobromide was injected into the a) septum, b) dorsal hippocampus, or c) lateral ventricles of conscious rabbits via bilateral chronic indwelling cannulas. The cardiac orienting reflex (OR) and heart rate (HR) classical conditioning were assessed. A fourth group of animals received injections of the vehicle solution into these same brain areas and were otherwise similarly trained. Scopolamine had no effect on the cardiac OR produced by unreinforced tone stimuli. The OR consisted of pronounced bradycardia that habituated over successive trials in all groups. The HR change during classical conditioning also consisted of bradycardia. However, these conditional HR changes were attenuated by scopolamine injected into the septum and lateral ventricles, but were not affected by injections into the dorsal hippocampus. These results suggest that centrally applied scopolamine may affect a central nervous system associative process, and not a mechanism directly involved in primary bradycardia.     

The influence of sex-role orientation on ratings of perceived exertion

Previous research has shown that feminine-typed women have an aversion to strenuous physical activity and when engaging in cross-sex behavior may experience psychological distress. Given the growing interest in aerobic exercise, the present study was designed to test whether sex-role orientation mediated the report of physical exertion. Subjects were 33 college-aged women selected from three categories: masculine, feminine, and androgynous. Procedures required that each subject complete two one-hour testing sessions. The first session was employed to collect anthropometric data and to evaluate maximum aerobic capacity, while the second session consisted of subjects completing a preperformance affect scale and subsequently running for 30 minutes at a preestablished work intensity. Results revealed that those who were feminine-typed gave significantly higher exertional ratings than either the masculine or androgynous women. The fact that the feminine group was less positive about the task suggests that the observed perceptual differences may have been due to affective schemata which have been hypothesized to mediate the perception of pain.This article is based on a master's thesis by the first author, but the second author assumed primary responsibility for the preparation of the present article.     

Female attractiveness and eating disorders: Do children's television commercials play a role?

The differential rate of eating disorders in males and females has been partially attributed to gender socialization. Media influences, even in children's programming, may contribute to the greater emphasis on physical attractiveness for girls compared to boys. Commercials from Saturday morning cartoon programming were analyzed for the number of male/female main and supporting characters, sex of narrator, sex of intended consumer, and appearance enhancement of person, doll, or animal. A majority of the commercials (60.6%) were for food products. Chi-square comparisons revealed significantly more male than female main characters and narrators in these commercials. Of those commercials (13.8%) scored for appearance enhancement, all male/female chi-square comparisons were significant with more female supporting characters, female main characters, female narrators, and female consumers. With the combined emphases on food and, for girls, on appearance, support for possible influences of commercials in eating disorders is noted.     

Sex and sex-typing effects on computer attitudes and aptitude

Previous research has supported a sex difference favoring males on computer-related variables. This study examines the potential mediating effects of psychological sex typing on computer variables. One hundred twenty-five undergraduates were administered measures assessing sex typing, computer experience, computer attitudes, computer self-efficacy, and computer aptitude. When the effects of specific computer experience and sex-typing variables were removed using analyses of covariance, male/female comparisons on computer aptitude and self-efficacy variables were no longer significant. Participant sex as well as masculinity and several computer experience variables were significant in the computer attitude analysis.     

Long-term family therapy: A developmental approach

The emphasis in family therapy literature on brief therapy has given a false sense of what family therapy can accomplish. While it has helped to develop different theories of change and refine techniques to deal with resistance, it has caused many clinicians to mistake technique for treatment. A long term developmental approach is advocated in which the family therapist is the general practitioner rather than the specialist. This paper is the result of a 30-year caseload in which there was a group of multi-therapy families.     

Health-related information seeking as a function of health-related locus of control and health value

Two studies were conducted testing the hypothesis that health-related information seeking is a joint function of a person's locus of control beliefs and the value placed on health. Using a health-related measure of locus of control, internal subjects who valued health highly relative to other terminal values (cf. Rokeach, 1973) chose more pamphlets about the particular health condition, hypertension, than did internal-low health value subjects or externals regardless of their health value. Little evidence was found to support the proposition that subject differentially chose pamphlets according to author characieristics (i.e., male or female, doctors or nurses).     

Creating a safe place for growth in supervision

When people are afraid, learning is inhibited. In too many disturbed families, institutional settings, rigid organizations, and some supervision groups, a feeling of emotional safety is missing. The first step in teaching, supervising, or therapy is the necessity to provide a safe environment. The author suggests a model applicable to any supervision group, work group, organization, classroom, or family. A group model, specifically applied to the relationship between family therapy students or interns and supervisors, suggests ways to enhance growth by minimizing fear.