Fetal behavioral responses to the touch of the mother’s abdomen: A Frame-by-frame analysis

The aim of the present study was to examine whether fetuses respond to the touching of the mother’s abdomen, and if they do, whether they differentiate based on familiarity and the source of the touch, utilizing 3D real-time (4D) sonography.Behavioral responses of 28 fetuses (20th to 33rd week of gestation; N = 15 in the 2nd and N = 13 in the 3rd trimester) were frame-by-frame coded using a coding system comprising 20 codes and were analyzed in four conditions, during the touch of the (1) mother, (2) the father, (3) the stranger and in a (4) no-touch, control condition.Fetuses showed differential responses to the touch, in particular in the duration of their reaching out to touch the uterus wall in the four conditions, and self-touch, dependent on the gestational age of the fetus. Fetuses in the 3rd trimester touched the uterus wall significantly longer than fetuses in the 2nd trimester did, when the mother touched compared to the control condition. At the same time, fetuses in the 3rd trimester also touched themselves less during the mother’s touch, compared when the stranger touched and also compared to the control condition.This differential response of the older fetuses might be due to the maturation of the central nervous system, and may indicate the emergence of a proprioceptive self-awareness by the 3rd trimester.     

Probing the influence of unconscious fear-conditioned visual stimuli on eye movements

Efficient threat detection from the environment is critical for survival. Accordingly, fear-conditioned stimuli receive prioritized processing and capture overt and covert attention. However, it is unknown whether eye movements are influenced by unconscious fear-conditioned stimuli. We performed a classical fear-conditioning procedure and subsequently recorded participants’ eye movements while they were exposed to fear-conditioned stimuli that were rendered invisible using interocular suppression. Chance-level performance in a forced-choice-task demonstrated unawareness of the stimuli. Differential skin conductance responses and a change in participants’ fearfulness ratings of the stimuli indicated the effectiveness of conditioning. However, eye movements were not biased towards the fear-conditioned stimulus. Preliminary evidence suggests a relation between the strength of conditioning and the saccadic bias to the fear-conditioned stimulus. Our findings provide no strong evidence for a saccadic bias towards unconscious fear-conditioned stimuli but tentative evidence suggests that such an effect may depend on the strength of the conditioned response.     

Individual Versus Collective Responses to Membership in a Low-Status Group: The Effects of Stability and Individual Ability

Abstract

To test predictions of social identity theory (SIT; M. A. Hogg & D. Abrams, 1988; H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner, 1979) and the 5-stage model (FSM; D. M. Taylor & D. J. McKirnan, 1984) concerning reactions to membership in a low-status group, the authors led 112 pupils to believe that another (anonymous) class outperformed their class. In an overall permeable and legitimate intergroup context, the authors manipulated the stability of the low group status and the individual ability of the group members. Contrary to SIT and FSM, the pupils generally favored collective normative action. Individual mobility was preferred only by group members, especially boys, with high individual ability who thought that the low status of their group was stable. The results support FSM assumptions (a) that individual ability is a powerful determinant of intergroup behavior but (b) that one should consider its impact in combination with perceived stability.     

Intertraumatic Dissociative Attachment

SUMMARY

This article focuses on the treatment of couples with a collective personal history of multiple traumatic experiences, and central related concepts. Referred to as the intertrauma couples therapy (InTCT) model, this article outlines an approach to treating trauma victim couples in which each partner has suffered one or more traumatic experiences (i.e., war, rape, criminal assault, incest, community violence, etc.). InTCT is a structured five-phase model of care, derived from a long trauma treatment tradition, and the author's clinical experience in the treatment of multitrauma persons for over 20 years.

This comprehensive, integrative approach to treatment is designed to resolve chronic interpersonal hostility, isolation in marriage, fears of intimacy and engulfment, and the persistent revivifications of partners' traumatic memories as a painful product of daily relational encounters. Unfortunately, these encounters represent trauma structures interacting with trauma structures, with no end or relief to the mutual pain-generating interactional patterns. The phases of the treatment takes the couple from disorganization and intense emotional reactivity to stabilization through integration to an end phase with a post-integration life skills building program for lasting results. Also presented are issues such as attachment, specific trauma responses to include interactive concepts of trauma bonding and systems theory in the context of trauma and dissociation. The article also presents a multitrauma couple case study, and discusses the critical role of therapist's functions.     

Emotional Reactions During and After Trauma: A Comparison of Trauma Types

Peri- and posttraumatic emotional responses have been understudied, and furthermore, have rarely been compared among trauma types. The current study compared college students' retrospective self-reports of peri- and posttraumatic responses of fear, shame, guilt, anger, and sadness among four types of traumatic events: sexual assault, physical assault, transportation accident, and illness/injury. Overall emotional responding was generally high for all trauma types, and for those in the sexual assault group, emotion increased sharply from the peri- to posttraumatic time point. Generally, fear was higher during the trauma compared to after the trauma, whereas the other emotions tended to remain stable or increase posttrauma. The sexual assault group tended to report higher levels of posttrauma emotion than the other trauma type groups.     

Surviving the early loss of a mother: daughters speak,by Anne Tracey

The purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate a coping response that is thought to be unique among older Catholics–suffering in silence. Two hypotheses are examined. The first predicts that older Catholics will be more likely than older Protestants to suffer in silence when ongoing economic difficulty is encountered. The second hypothesis specifies that the potentially deleterious effects of financial problems on depressive symptoms will be offset for older adults who prefer to suffer in silence. Data from an ongoing nationwide survey of older people in the United States provide support for both hypotheses.     

Effect of Amount and Percentage of Reinforcement on Resistance to Extinction in Preschool Children

A correlational study of parental assimilation patterns revealed greater paternal compliance and greater maternal compliance and internalization in a sample of teacher-judged adjusted boys than in a comparison sample of unadjusted boys. Adjusted boys were more similar to their fathers in terms of their personal orientations toward child behavior. The generalized expectations of these boys were also more similar to their mothers' expectations. Data on intrafamilial perceptions were reported to illustrate the greater parental assimilation by the adjusted boys. These results lend additional support to the theorized importance of parental identification in the early development of behavior disorders.     

Judgment Difficulty and the Moral Intensity of Unethical Acts: A Cognitive Response Analysis of Dual Process Ethical Judgment Formation

This study analyzes cognitive responses to explore a dual processing perspective of ethical judgment formation. Specifically, the study investigates how two factors, judgment task difficulty and moral intensity, influence the extent of deontological and teleological processing and their effects on ethical judgments. A single experiment on 110 undergraduate research participants found that judgment task difficulty affected the extent of deontological and teleological processing. Although moral intensity affected ethical judgments, it did not produce effects on either deontological or teleological cognitive responses. Results did not support the hypotheses that deontological and teleological cognitive responses would mediate the relationships between the experimental factors and ethical judgments. Overall, the results support continued research of factors that affect the nature of information processing in ethical decision situations and the use of cognitive response analysis as a tool for conducting this research.     

Individuals with chronic ankle instability compensate for their ankle deficits using proximal musculature to maintain reduced postural sway while kicking a ball

The aim of this study was to investigate anticipatory (APA), simultaneous (SPA) and compensatory (CPA) postural adjustments in individuals with and without chronic ankle instability (CAI) as they kicked a ball while standing in a single-leg stance on a stable and unstable surface. Electromyographic activity (EMG) of postural muscles and center of pressure (COP) displacements were calculated and their magnitudes analyzed during the postural adjustment intervals. Additionally, the COP area of sway was calculated over the duration of the whole task. The activities of postural muscles were also studied using principal component analysis (PCA) to identify between-group differences in patterns of muscle activation. The individuals with CAI showed reduced magnitude of EMG at the muscles around the ankle while around the hip the activity was increased. These were associated with a reduction in balance sway across the entire task, as compared with the control group. The PCA revealed that CAI participants assemble different sets of muscle activation to compensate for their ankle instability, primarily activating hip/spine muscles. These results set up potential investigations to examine whether balance control interventions enhance these adaptations or revert them to a normal pattern as well as if any of these changes proactively address recurrent ankle sprain conditions.