An exploratory study of social support, distress, and life disruption among low-income Hispanic women under treatment for early stage breast cancer.

Relationships between distress and perceived availability of social support were examined in 51 Hispanic women being treated for early stage breast cancer. Distress and different types (emotional, instrumental) and sources (spouse, women family members, other family members, friends) of support were measured at presurgery, postsurgery, and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Emotional support from friends and instrumental support from spouse at presurgery predicted lower distress postsurgery. No other prospective benefits of perceived support emerged. Distress at several time points predicted erosion of subsequent support, particularly instrumental support from women in the family. In contrast to the adverse effects of distress (and independent of them), illness-related disruption of recreational and social activities at 6 months elicited greater support at 12 months.     

Age Discrimination in Personnel Decisions: A Reexamination1

Rosen and Jerdee's (1976a) classic study on age discrimination, conducted over 25 years ago, was replicated in the present study. In the original study, participants rated older targets as being less desirable and suitable in a variety of work-related scenarios. In contrast, participants in the current study rated older and younger targets as similarly qualified and suitable for promotion, training, and hiring. The discontinuity between the results of the 2 studies is discussed, and explanations involving both social change and methodological factors are suggested.     

Interdisciplinary Treatment of Maladaptive Behaviors Associated with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS): A Case Report

The prevalence of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) in adolescents and young adults has been increasing during the past decade. Despite this increase, documentation regarding treatment of these patients is just beginning to emerge. In addition, despite a call for a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach, no studies have examined the efficacy of such an approach to treatment. This paper describes a case study of a 19-year-old male with debilitating POTS seen at a tertiary clinic for evaluation and subsequent intensive interdisciplinary treatment. The treatment approach is described and outcomes are presented.     

Antipredator behavior of Swiss-Webster mice in a visible burrow system

Swiss-Webster mice living in a visible burrow system (VBS) reacted to presentation of a live cat in the surface area of the VBS by retreat to the burrows and reductions in nondefensive behaviors such as eating and drinking. Live eat-exposed subjects remained in the burrows 14 hr or more, while subjects exposed to a toy (plush) cat prior to live cat exposure reemerged almost immediately and made many contacts with the toy cat. However, subjects exposed first to the cat and later to a toy cat showed intermediate surface reemergence times and cat contacts during toy cat tests, indicating strong sensitization effects of prior live cat exposure. Previous studies indicated that rats in this situation show retreat to the burrows, surface avoidance, and reduction in nondefensive behaviors. The mouse pattern was similar, with the notable exception that in the first 5min block after cat presentation, mice rapidly alternated retreat to the burrow chambers with reappearance in the tunnel segment near the surface, to scan the surface visually and sniff. Movement during this time block involved a stretch attend posture characteristic also of risk assessment activities in rats. Such visual and olfactory inspection of the cat is not seen in rats in the VBS. This difference may be related to the finding that rats, but not mice, emit ultrasonic “alarm cries” during and after cat exposure. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The Impact of Anonymity on Responses to Sensitive Questions1

To estimate frequencies of behaviors not carried out in public view, researchers generally must rely on self‐report data. We explored 2 factors expected to influence the decision to reveal: (a) privacy (anonymity vs. confidentiality) and (b) normalization (providing information so that a behavior is reputedly commonplace or rare). We administered a questionnaire to I55 undergraduates. For 79 respondents, we had corroborative information regarding a negative behavior: cheating. The privacy variable had an enormous impact; of those who had cheated, 25% acknowledged having done so under confidentiality, but 74% admitted the behavior under anonymity. Normalization had no effect. There were also dramatic differences between anonymity and confidentiality on some of our other questions, for which we did not have validation.     

Effects of compounding drug-related stimuli: escalation of heroin self-administration

Previous experiments have demonstrated that presenting independently established discriminative stimuli in compound can substantially increase operant responding maintained by food reinforcement or shock avoidance. Recently, this phenomenon was also shown to occur with cocaine self-administration. The present study further assessed the generality of these stimulus-compounding effects by systematically replicating them with heroin self-administration. Rats' nose-poke responses produced intravenous heroin (0.025 mg/kg per infusion) on a variable-ratio schedule when either a tone or a light was present. In the absence of these stimuli, responding was not reinforced. Once discriminative control by the tone and light had been established, the stimuli were presented in compound under extinction (with heroin discontinued) or maintenance conditions (with heroin available during test-stimulus presentations). In extinction, the tone-light compound increased responding approximately threefold compared to tone or light alone. Under maintenance conditions, compounding increased heroin intake approximately twofold. These effects closely matched those obtained earlier with cocaine. This consistency across pharmacological classes and across drug and nondrug reinforcers further confirms that (a) self-administered drugs support conditioning and learning in a manner similar to that supported by other reinforcers; and (b) multiple drug-related cues interact in lawful and predictable ways to affect drug seeking and consumption.     

Anatomically based measurement of facial expressions in simulated versus hypnotically induced affect

In an attempt to determine whether hypnotically induced affect could be reliably discriminated from simulations, three hypnotically trained female undergraduate subjects were presented with posthypnotic cues to either experience or simulate varying degrees of anxiety and pleasure. Facial expressions generated by subjects in response to these cues were recorded on videotape and coded by means of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). It was hypothesized that simulated emotional expressions, requiring greater cortical processing, would be marked by longer onset latencies and greater irregularity or fluctuation in muscular contraction than the presumably automatic changes in facial behavior accompanying posthypnotic emotions. Statistical analyses confirmed both expectations. The results were viewed as reflecting support for the validity of posthypnotically cued affect.