Toward an animal model of type A behavior

Time estimation and dominance tests were used to differentiate the behavior of Mongolian gerbils to be analogous to Type A and Type B human behavior. Preliminary classification of animals as "Type A" or "B" was based upon differential performance on DRL 20-sec and DRL 60-sec reinforcement schedules. To retain their preliminary classification, Type A and Type B animals were required to be dominant and subordinate, respectively, in matches with each of three same-sex animals of opposite behavioral classification. Following classification, breeding pairs were constituted and classification procedures were repeated with two succeeding generations. Animals that exhibited Type A timing "won" significantly more dominance matches than did Type B animals. Incidence rates of Type A and Type B behavior in the two selectively bred generations were significantly greater than frequencies in the original stock generation. The usefulness of the present animal model for investigating the association of Type A behavior with coronary heart disease is discussed.     

Unemployment and its impact on adolescent work values

This study examines the impact of unemployment on the work values orientation of adolescents. Using Super's (1970) Work Values Inventory, data were collected from 187 youths residing in a large midwestern city in the United States. Youths from families where the head of household had been unemployed for more than one year prior to the time of the study were compared to youths from a working-family environment. The findings of this study show little difference between work values orientation of youths from unemployed and employed families. The only variable which did prove to be significantly different settings appear to is "esthetics" (p less than .05), i.e., youths from unemployed settings appear to value new experiences and outlets for their abilities more than do youths of the comparison group.     

Dominance: Another Facet of Type A1

Aggression, but not dominance, is typically used as a criterion for the assessment of Type A behavior. This study proposed and demonstrated that nonaggressive dominance, defined as interpersonal resistance or persistence in efforts to control a competitive situation, is associated with Type A behavior for both males and females. Forty males and 35 females typed with the Jenkins Activity Survey participated in a revised version of the classic Deutsch and Krauss (1960) competition paradigm. Both A males and females were more dominant than their respective Type B counterparts. Type A males were not different from Type A females in persistence, nor were Type B males different from Type B females. Female Type A's were more resistant to their competitor's efforts at controlling the situation than were their Type B counterparts. Male Type A's did not differ from their Type B counterparts in resistance. The implications of these results in further elucidating the mechanisms underlying the relationship between Type A and pathophysiologic health hazards are discussed.     

Fantasy or structural defect? The borderline dilemma as viewed from analysis of an experience of nonhumanness

The experience of nonhumanness, a crucial aspect of the phenomenal self of borderline states, is studied in two cases to test assumptions concerning the application of the classic ego-psychological or object-relations and self-psychological models. Are these experiences to be seen as fantasy and treated as manifest content, with dynamically active unconscious conflict and meaning, requiring interpretation, or as a developmental arrest in which structural disturbances are ameliorated through clarifying and empathic interventions? The first case is of a patient with a neurotic depression and hysterical and obsessional character traits, treated in a classic psychoanalysis. Even though dyadic oral and anal fantasies were strongly in evidence, the ego was well integrated. The second case is of a severe borderline patient who showed depressive panic and agoraphobia. Her major ego disturbances, poorly integrated and differentiated self- and object representations, and primitive defenses prevented effective psychoanalytically oriented treatment. Interventions were used to consolidate self-representations, internalize tension-regulating structures, promote adaptive ego functions and reality testing. These clarifications were necessary to move the patient to where she could tolerate facing unconscious dynamic conflicts. Only at that point could repression be lifted, memory emerge, and interpretation be utilized.     

IVF technology and the argument from potential

Singer and Dawson point out that two arguments against abortion, that the embryo is entitled to protection because from fertilization it is (1) a human being or (2) a potential human being, are also used by opponents of embryo experimentation. They focus on the second argument, evaluating the notion of potentiality as it applies to gametes, to the unimplanted embryo, to the implanted developing embryo, and to the embryo created by in vitro fertilization (IVF). They argue that there is a crucial distinction between natural reproduction, in which all that is needed for the embryo to have a prospect of reaching its potential is for those involved to refrain from stopping it, and IVF, in which the embryo cannot develop into a person without a deliberate human act. Reproductive techniques necessitate our rethinking of established views about potentiality, and how it should be applied to the embryo in a laboratory.     

Delinquency,substance abuse,and risk taking in middle-class adolescents

Risk-taking attitudes are strong predictors of delinquency and substance abuse among male and female middle-class adolescents. Risk-taking measures make strong and independent contributions to predicting self-reported delinquency and drug and alcohol use, even taking into account bonding to family and school and attitudes toward one's religious faith and employment. A measure of involvement with a delinquent peer group also predicts delinquency and drug and alcohol use. Moreover, those adolescents who are more likely to be involved in delinquent activity, or to be heavier users of substances, are less likely to turn to parents or formal helpers (e.g., counselors, teachers, etc.), and more likely to turn to peers for help. Delinquency and substance abuse prevention programs should take into account adolescent risk taking and should affect peer group norms if they are to be effective.     

Gender differences,mediation, and disciplinary styles in children's responses to television

A sample of kindergarten and first-grade children was studied in a research center and at school to determine the extent to which family communication mediated their comprehension of television, as well as a series of cognitive skills necessary for such comprehension. Separate analyses were conducted for boys and girls, and results indicated that certain styles of family mediation facilitated comprehension more effectively for boys than for girls. Additionally, differential effects of two styles of discipline were found for each sex.This research was funded by a grant to Jerome and Dorothy Singer from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation entitled Television and Family Living Patterns.     

ETHICS AND SOCIOBIOLOGY

Abstract. Sociobiologists make large claims for their subject. Knowing about the genetic underpinnings of human society will, they claim, enable us to understand all of human behavior and even to solve the ancient philosophical questions of how we ought to live. This essay assesses the significance of sociobiology for ethics. It argues that sociobiologists have misunderstood the relevance of facts to values and that their larger ambitions for their subject are bound to remain unfulfilled. Nevertheless, philosophers are wrong to ignore sociobiology. To give a genetic account of the existence of a widely held value does not justify that value, but it does say something of relevance to the ethical issues. The problem is to work out just what difference such an explanation makes.