A comparison of the key-peck and treadle-press operants in the pigeon: differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule of reinforcement

Key pecking and treadle pressing in pigeons were compared under concurrent (key-treadle) and single-operant differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules of food reinforcement ranging from 5 to 60 sec (concurrent procedure) or 5 to 120 sec (single-operant procedure). Under both procedures, the two operants followed the same general law: decreasing response rate and reinforcement rate and increasing number of responses per reinforcement as a function of increasing schedule interval. High correlations were found between key pecking and treadle pressing for the measures of response rate, reinforcement rate, and responses per reinforcement. Regression equations allowed the prediction of treadle pressing from key pecking. More bursting occurred in responding to the key, and key pecking showed a more precise temporal discrimination than treadle pressing. A test for sequential dependencies between key and treadle responses showed significant dependencies not only under the concurrent procedure but also in data created artificially by merging key and treadle sequences from different pigeons under the concurrent procedure and from the same pigeon under the single-operant procedure. It seems likely that the sequential dependencies found were due to the independent action of the schedule on each operant and that behavioral dependencies did not occur with the concurrent training procedure. The key-peck operant does not appear to have any special qualities that preclude its use in discovering general laws of behavior, at least under the differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule. The usefulness of the key peck in other situations requires direct experimental study.     

Attitudes Toward Male Oral Contraceptives: Implications for Models of the Relationship Between Beliefs and Attitudes1

Four factors (effectiveness, health risks, cost, and convenience) were orthogonally manipulated in a 3 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design to determine their relative importance in influencing attitudes toward and intentions to use male oral contraceptives. The experimental design also permitted a test of the assumption of additivity underlying expectancy-value models of attitude and the assumption of absence of context effects. Results were consistent with expectancy-value models of the relationship between beliefs and attitudes. In addition, it was found that health risks and effedtiveness, in that order, were the most important factors influencing receptivity to male oral contraceptives, with the effects of cost and convenience being mediated by these two factors. Sex differences in attitudes toward male oral contraceptives were also observed.     

The perceived social status of husbands and wives in dual-work families as a function of achieved and derived occupational status

The perception of the general social standing of husbands and wives in dual-work families as a function of their respective achieved and derived occupational statuses was examined experimentally. The results indicated that both the wife's and husband's general social status was a function only of the husband's occupational status; the wife's occupational status had no effect on either her general social status or that of her husband. The one exception to this was the case of the high achieved occupational status wife depressing the social status of the low occupational status husband. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for recent critiques of male-determined stratification models.     

Adults who are more anxious and were anxiously attached as children report later first memories

Here, we examined retrospective reports of adults’ earliest autobiographical memory, the age of this report and whether the reported age was associated with exposure to early life adversity, current anxiety and childhood attachment. Across four studies, we found that reporting a later ‘earliest’ memory was associated with higher self-reported anxiety in both American (Studies 1, 2 and 4) and Australian (Study 3) samples. Furthermore, in Studies 2–4, we found that reporting a later earliest memory uniquely predicted anxiety when controlling for number of adverse childhood events (a risk factor for the development of anxiety). In Study 4, we established that this relation is partially mediated by childhood anxious attachment. Although we consistently demonstrated that later earliest memories were associated with current anxiety, we found little evidence for a relation between reported age at the time of earliest memory and childhood adversity. We also found no evidence of gender differences in the associations of interest. These results suggest that poorer memory of early childhood is associated with greater childhood anxious attachment and anxiety in adulthood. The implications of this work are discussed in terms of the adaptive nature of autobiographical memory and the development of a coherent life narrative.     

Validation of the 2012 European Social Survey Measurement of Wellbeing in Seventeen European Countries

The measurement of wellbeing provides an important indicator of the welfare of nations and presents opportunities for policy making. Researchers generally share the view of wellbeing as a multidimensional concept. The 2012 European Social Survey (ESS) measurement of personal and social wellbeing, a combination of theoretical models and evidence from statistical analysis, is defined as a six-dimensional construct: evaluative wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, functioning, vitality, community wellbeing and supportive relationships. In this paper, the proposed theoretical structure is investigated and the psychometric properties of the measure are assessed for 17 European countries. This involved splitting each country’s sample randomly into halves and performing Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) on the first half-samples. EFA resulted in a four-factor solution for Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, a five-factor solution for Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation and Sweden, and a six-factor solution for Denmark and Hungary. These results were supported by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) performed on the second half-samples. Subscales were constructed based on analysis of the total samples, applying a simple transformation in order to deal with the different number of response categories used for the wellbeing items. Reliabilities and internal consistencies were investigated. Although the definition of each subscale differs from the proposed structure and across countries, the analysis did produce reliable and valid summary measures (subscales) of wellbeing for informing social policy in each country.

     

The use of the political categories of Brexiter and Remainer in online comments about the EU referendum

In June 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on EU membership; 52% of those who voted, voted to leave, and 48% voted to remain. During the referendum campaign, two identities emerged: “Brexiter” and “Remainer,” which remained salient post‐referendum. This study explores how the categories of Brexiter and Remainer were deployed by posters online. Data comprise comment threads collected from four online newspapers both during the campaign and after the vote, which focus on the Brexit campaign promise: “We send £350m a week to the EU. Let's fund our NHS instead.” We draw on membership categorization analysis and discursive psychology to analyse when categories were made salient and what responses to the invocation of categories were. Analysis revealed that posters explicitly categorize the out‐group and in doing so implicitly define their group. Posters resisted other political identities when attributed to them in relation to the referendum. The analysis shows how Brexiter and Remainer are new, albeit contested, political categories and identities in their own right, with other political identities resisted when used. The paper highlights implications for the political system in the United Kingdom and for social divisions within U.K. society.     

Faith and Learning in Higher Education: Merging the Bible with Discipline-Specific Content

This article offers a brief history on the origin of universities, summarizes how faith shaped higher education from the European university’s advent to its Western reproduction, and presents recommendations from a contemporary faith integration method employed in many faith-based universities in the United States. Response to intervention was used to direct two examples of faith integration performed for 14 candidates enrolled in a teacher preparation program. The study advocates the instruction, modeling, and practicum elements of faith integration in curricula that provide postsecondary instructors with valuable insight to develop proficiency in the art of merging biblical content with discipline-specific content.