BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS AND ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY: PAST,PRESENT, AND FUTURE. A REVIEW OF HARRY HEFT'S ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY IN CONTEXT

Relations between behavior analysis and ecological psychology have been strained for years, notwithstanding the occasional comment on their affinities. Harry Heft's (2001) Ecological Psychology in Context provides an occasion for reviewing anew those relations and affinities. It describes the genesis of ecological psychology in James's radical empiricism; addresses Holt's neorealism and Gestalt psychology; and synthesizes Gibson's ecological psychology and Barker's ecobehavioral science as a means for understanding everyday human behavior. Although behavior analysis is excluded from this account, Heft's book warrants a review nonetheless: It describes ecological psychology in ways that are congruent and complementary with behavior analysis (e.g., nonmediational theorizing; the provinces of natural history and natural science). After introducing modern ecological psychology, I comment on (a) Heft's admirable, albeit selective, historiography; (b) his ecological psychology—past and present—as it relates to Skinner's science and system (e.g., affordances, molar behavior); (c) his misunderstandings of Skinner's behaviorism (e.g., reductionistic, mechanistic, molecular); and (d) the theoretical status of Heft's cognitive terms and talk (i.e., in ontology, epistemology, syntax). I conclude by considering the alliance and integration of ecological psychology and behavior analysis, and their implications for unifying and transforming psychology as a life science, albeit more for the future than at present.     

Trauma Recovery in the Transgender and Gender Diverse Community: Extensions of the Minority Stress Model for Treatment Planning

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) populations, including those that do not identify with gender binary constructs (man or woman) are increasingly presenting for treatment of posttrauma sequelae. Providers who offer services for trauma survivors including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment should be knowledgeable about evidence-based care and have some cultural familiarity with TGD experiences. Indeed, the Minority Stress Model suggests that the combination of distal and proximal minority stressors can combine to produce increased mental health symptoms as compared with cisgender peers, though this model has yet to be fully tested. Clients often present with a complicated picture of experiences, which include a variety of minority stressors, microaggressions, discrimination, and traumatic events that can all be related to their identity. However, conceptualizations of trauma treatment in the context of extensive minority stress are lacking. This paper summarizes the existing literature and offers guidance to mental health providers who are well positioned to address stigma, discrimination, violence, and related symptoms that arise from micro-, mezzo- and macro-level spheres of TGD individuals’ experience.     

Across the Martian Frontier? Thoughts on Planet B,a Martian Safety Valve,and the Earth as Our Body

Even though we are on the precipice of a “bad Anthropocene,” humankind should not colonize Mars. Mars is often depicted as our “Planet B”—an evacuation plan for Earth. But in this time of ecological crisis, theologian Sallie McFague suggests that we think of the Earth as God’s body and take our obligation to care for our common home seriously. Likewise, in contrast to calls for colonization, I contend that two American historical anecdotes—the safety valve theory and the Yellowstone—illustrate why humanity should think less about becoming Martians and instead find meaning and purpose in remaining Earthlings.     

Once More Unto the Breach: Type B Physicalism,Phenomenal Concepts,and the Epistemic Gap

Type B, or a posteriori, physicalism is the view that phenomenal-physical identity statements can be necessarily true, even though they cannot be known a priori—and that the key to understanding their status is to understand the special features of our phenomenal concepts, those concepts of our experiential states acquired through introspection. This view was once regarded as a promising response to anti-physicalist arguments that maintain that an epistemic gap between phenomenal and physical concepts entails that phenomenal and physical properties are distinct. More recently, however, many physicalists have lost confidence in the view, and have proposed less promising defences of physicalism—or have become outright sceptical about its prospects. I argue here that these physicalists have underestimated the resources of Type B physicalism and are thereby retreating too quickly—or fighting battles that have already been won.     

慢性乙型肝炎患者外周血中睾酮的变化及其意义

测定65例慢性乙型肝炎患者和35例健康者血清睾酮水平,并分别检测血清丙氨酸氨基转移酶（alanine aminotransferase,ALT）、谷氨酸氨基转移酶（aspartate aminotransferase,AST）、γ-谷氨酰基转肽酶（gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase,GOT）、血清总胆红素（total bilirubin,TBIL）、碱性磷酸酶（alkaline phosphatase,ALP）、免疫球蛋白IgG、IgM、IgA,荧光定量PCR检测外周血HBV DNA水平。慢性乙型肝炎患者血清睾酮水平显著高于正常对照组,HBeAg阳性患者较HBeAg阴性患者升高明显,但差别无显著意义。慢性乙型肝炎患者肝功血清学指标ALT、AST、TBIL、GGT、ALP及IgG水平显著高于正常人,但乙肝患者睾酮水平与ALT等生化指标及HBV DNA水平无明显相关性,与免疫球蛋白IgG呈中等负相关。因而可以看出慢性乙型肝炎患者血清睾酮水平显著高于正常人,睾酮水平升高可作为慢性乙型肝炎的易感因素之一。     

干扰素治疗慢性乙型肝炎临床评价

干扰素治疗慢性乙型肝炎已有20多年历史,由于其抑制病毒复制和强大的免疫调节作用,以及具有疗程确定,不引起病毒变异耐药,显效后疗效持久的特点,是慢性乙型肝炎抗病毒治疗的首选药物之一。多项试验证明聚乙二醇化干扰素治疗慢性乙型肝炎的疗效优于普通干扰素和核苷类似物。本文就有关干扰素单用、联合核苷类似物和序贯疗法治疗慢性乙型肝炎的临床研究和HBV基因型对干扰素疗效的影响做简要综述。     

A threshold theory of the humor response

The humor response has long been considered mysterious, and it is given relatively little attention in modern experimental psychology, in spite of the fact that numerous studies suggest that it has substantial benefits for mood and health. Existing theories of humor fail to account for some of the most basic humor phenomena. On most occasions when a humor response occurs, certain verbal or visual stimuli (the "setup" stimuli, which function as an establishing operation) must precede a critical stimulus (such as a "punch line" or the final panel or critical feature of a cartoon), which then occasions a sudden "revelation" or "understanding"; this revelation is often accompanied by the humor response. We suggest that the setup stimuli increase the strength of the revelatory response to a point just below the threshold of awareness and that the critical stimulus, properly designed and timed, edges the revelatory response to a point just above threshold. We also suggest that it is this threshold phenomenon that produces most instances of the humor response. We discuss these issues in the context of some notable humor of Carl Rogers and B. F. Skinner.     

乙肝病毒感染儿童面临的社会伦理学问题

我国是乙型病毒性肝炎高发区,母婴传播感染是一条极其重要且不易阻断的感染途径,由母婴传播导致的儿童乙肝病毒感染问题,不仅仅是现阶段我国严重的公共卫生问题,同时也是严重的社会伦理问题。HBV感染儿童在成长过程中所面临的社会歧视和自身权利保障是每一个患儿家庭迫切关心的,也是社会伦理学工作者的研究范畴。     

Behavioral determinants of drug action. The contributions of Peter B. Dews

Peter B. Dews played a significant role in shaping the distinctive characteristics and defining the underlying principles of the discipline of behavioral pharmacology. His early and sophisticated use of schedules of reinforcement in the 1950s, incorporated from research in the experimental analysis of behavior and integrated into the discipline of pharmacology, provided tremendous insight, inspiration, and impetus to the newly emerging field of behavioral pharmacology. The experimental findings generated by Dews' research, blending the sophisticated use of behavior and pharmacological principles together with the elegant manner of their presentation and far-reaching implications, provided the force and momentum to establish and direct behavioral pharmacology for several decades. This article attempts to capture some of Dews' research that integrated and inspired the blending of sophisticated behavioral work with that of pharmacology.