Rats learn to eat more to avoid hunger

Several recent experiments have provided evidence that the ingestion of a distinctive food by rats can be a learnt instrumental act as well as an associatively conditioned reaction. In the previous work, maintenance food was withheld for shorter and longer durations on different days following access to the training food. Extra eating before the longer fast was interpreted as avoidance of hunger. This interpretation was based on the evidence showing that extra eating as a result of classical conditioning comes from pairing food stimuli with the presence of little or no hunger because of repletion with energy nutrients. The theory that the extra eating arose from a response-depletion contingency was tested in the present experiment by training rats on only a long fast or only a short fast. Greater increase in intake was seen before the longer fast. The results also replicated previously seen cycles of increase, decrease, and renewed increase in putative deficit-avoidant eating over about three trials, indicating that the extra eating reduces the response-reinforcing hunger and that the consequent part-extinction restores reinforcement. The shape of the learning curve was consistent with these cycles occurring from the start of training, further supporting the view that the increase in food intake before a long delay in refeeding is hunger-reinforced instrumental behaviour.     

Spitting,kicking and stripping: technical difficulties encountered in the treatment of deprived children

The technical difficulties posed for the child psychotherapist working with children who have themselves experienced violence and abuse are addressed. A distinction is drawn between violence in the service of communicating about such experiences and violence that arises from more perverse aspects of the patient. The therapist's need to pay close attention to his counter-transference is emphasized. From an example of a single session we see the therapist's struggle to receive the communicative aspects of extreme acting-out behaviour at the same time as creating a safe setting in which thinking can take place.     

A Dual Process Model of Attitudes towards Immigration: Person × Residential Area Effects in a National Sample

This research took a person × situation approach to predicting prejudice by looking at how social worldviews interact with real‐world environmental factors to predict how people respond to immigrants within their local area. Taking a Dual Process Motivational approach, we hypothesized that a higher proportion of immigrants in the local community would be associated with negative attitudes toward immigration for respondents high in dangerous world beliefs. Conversely, we hypothesized that living in a highly affluent (as opposed to socioeconomically deprived) community would be associated with negative attitudes toward immigration for respondents high in competitive world beliefs. Both hypotheses were supported using regional information derived from national census data combined with representative survey data from a large telephone sample conducted in New Zealand (N = 6,489). These findings support the proposition that individual differences interact with specific features of the environment to predict people's levels of prejudice in distinct ways.     

The parables of a green-eyed monster: Two tales about envy

Abstract

This paper describes how the dynamics of envy infiltrate interactions if envy is not contained. An interactive model of a 'giver' and 'recipient' is presented as a way of looking at envy and is applied to a clinical and organizational example. An analysis is made in terms of utilizing symbiosis defensively in order to avoid coming to grips with envy.     

Job insecurity and the benefits of work

The presented study combines conservation of resource theory with latent deprivation theory to explain the negative relationship between job insecurity and mental health. Specifically, we propose that people who face the threat of job insecure would perceive worse access to the benefits of work, which would explain the negative effect of job insecurity on mental health. In a two-wave study, employees rated their perceived job insecurity, their access to the benefits of work, and their mental health. Cross-sectional multiple mediation analysis at Time 1 (n = 295) and Time 2 (n = 236) showed that the negative relationship between job insecurity and mental health was partly due to a perceived lack of the benefits of work. Longitudinal results (n = 173) revealed that job insecurity was related to a decrease in financial benefits, which in turn predicted mental health. However, this effect was only visible if it was not controlled for prior levels of the benefits of work. The results are discussed with regards to conservation of resource theory and latent deprivation theory and the potential of this framework for explaining negative mental health effects of job insecurity.     

Sleep: A pathway linking personality to mortality risk

Personality and sleep predict longevity; however, no investigation has tested whether sleep mediates this association. Thus, we tested this effect across a 20-year follow-up (N = 3759) in the Midlife Development in the United States cohort (baseline M_age = 47.15) using proportional hazards in a structural equation modeling framework. Lower conscientiousness predicted increased death risk via the direct, indirect, and total effect of quadratic sleep duration. Although there were no other direct personality-mortality effects, higher neuroticism and agreeableness and lower conscientiousness predicted increased death risk via the joint indirect effects of quadratic sleep duration and higher daytime dysfunction. Lower extraversion predicted increased mortality risk via the indirect effect of daytime dysfunction. Our findings have implications for personality-based health interventions.     

相对剥夺感:概念、测量、影响因素及作用

相对剥夺感(relative deprivation,RD)是指个体或群体通过与参照群体比较而感知到自身处于不利地位,进而体验到愤怒和不满等负性情绪的一种主观认知和情绪体验。目前,相对剥夺感的测量模型主要有个体–群体RD与认知–情感RD的二维垂直结构模型、认知–情感RD的双维结构模型、个体–群体RD的双维结构模型以及RD的三维结构模型。影响相对剥夺感的相关因素主要包括人口统计学变量、个体特征变量和社会环境变量。影响效应方面,相对剥夺感与心理健康、个体行为等个体水平变量以及群际态度、集群行为等群体水平变量的关系是当前关注的焦点。今后研究的重点应包括完善相对剥夺感的概念与结构、注重青少年及特殊群体研究、丰富研究内容和视角、强化纵向干预研究以及本土化和跨文化研究等。     

Relative deprivation based on occupation: An effective predictor of Chinese life satisfaction

Relative deprivation (RD) refers to the fact that individuals may feel deprived of some desirable thing in social comparison relative to a reference group. Occupational group is widely recognized as the essential reference group and generally used to compare differences in earnings and social position. Four waves' data from the Social Attitudes Survey of Urban‐Rural Residents (China) (SAS‐C; 2005/2007/2008/2009) were used to compute to Stewart's new measure of RD for different occupational groups and its relationship to life satisfaction (a cognitive component of subjective well‐being). Results showed that both economic RD (defined as individuals' RD of material benefits, such as income, wealth etc.) and social status RD (defined as individuals' RD on their evaluation of social status) consistently predicted Chinese life satisfaction for a period of time from 2005 to 2009; meanwhile, individual economic RD was moderately correlated to social status RD. The effects of RD and some demographic variables on life satisfaction are discussed and possible improvements for future research are suggested.     

Effect of Sensory Deprivation on Maximal Force Abilities from Local to Non-local Digits

Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of sensory deprivation of the index and middle finger on motor function of all digits during maximal voluntary force production tasks. A total of 27 subjects performed maximal isometric pressing tasks by using different instructed finger combinations. Subjects completed the same tasks in two visits: a control visit when they had normal sensory feedback in all fingers, and an anesthesia visit when digital nerve blocks were performed on their right index and middle fingers. We evaluated three aspects of motor adaptation on both local (anesthetized) and non-local (non-anesthetized) digits during maximal force production: (1) task-relevant and overall force magnitude, (2) force directional application, and (3) digital individuation and force sharing. Our results indicate that selective digital anesthesia resulted in decreased maximal force magnitude, changed direction of force production, and significant changes extended to non-local digits. The motor weakness and inefficiency revealed in the non-local digits implies that sensory information from each digit can be shared across the digits to assist motor execution within the same hand.