Liberalism and Conservatism,for a Change! Rethinking the Association Between Political Orientation and Relation to Societal Change

According to common wisdom, which is supported by extant psychological theorizing, a core feature of political conservatism (vs. liberalism) is the resistance to (vs. acceptance of) societal change. We propose that an empirical examination of the actual difference in political liberals’ and conservatives’ attitudes toward change across different sociopolitical issues may call into question this assumed association between political orientation and relation to change. We examined this proposition in four studies conducted in Germany. In Study 1, we assessed lay people's intuitions about liberals’ and conservatives’ attitudes toward change. Results of this study concur with theoretical assumptions that liberals accept and conservatives resist change. In Study 2a, Study 2b, and Study 3, self‐identified liberals and conservatives were asked whether they would resist or accept change on various sociopolitical issues. Results of these studies suggest that both conservatives and liberals resist and accept societal changes, depending on the extent to which they approve or disapprove of the status quo on a given sociopolitical issue. Overall, our findings provide no evidence for a one‐directional association between political orientation and the tendency to accept or resist change. These findings therefore challenge theoretical and lay assumptions regarding general, context‐independent psychological differences underlying political ideologies.     

Resistance to change produced by access to fixed-delay versus variable-delay terminal links

Pigeons' responding was reinforced on a multiple schedule consisting of two two-link chain schedules presented in regular alternation. Responding in initial links (always variable-interval 60-s) produced a key-color change and access to a terminal link. The terminal link for one chain provided food after a fixed delay (fixed-interval or fixed-time); the terminal link for the other provided food after a variable delay (variable-interval or variable-time). The average duration of the terminal-link schedules was varied across conditions, but in every condition the arithmetic mean of the variable-delay terminal-link schedule was equal to the duration of the fixed delay. Response rates were higher in the initial links of the chains with the variable-delay terminal links. Response-decreasing operations (satiation, extinction) were used after performances reached asymptote. Response rates maintained by access to variable-delay terminal links tended to be more resistant to change than were rates maintained by access to fixed-delay terminal links. These results are consistent with the preference for variable- over fixed-interval terminal links observed with concurrent-chains schedules, suggesting (1) that immediacy of reinforcement influences the conditioned reinforcing potency of access to a terminal link and (2) that choice in concurrent chains and resistance of responding to change may be manifestations of the same effect of reinforcement.     

IN PURSUIT OF GENERAL BEHAVIORAL RELATIONS

Efforts to develop behavioral technologies from advances in basic research assume that results from studies with nonhuman subjects can, in some instances, be applied to human behavior. The behavioral principles likely to be most useful for application are those that represent robust general behavioral relations. Basic and applied research on behavioral momentum suggests that there is a general behavioral relation between the persistence of behavior and the rate of reinforcement obtained in a given situation. Understanding the factors that affect behavioral persistence may have important implications for applied behavior analysts that justify studies aimed at establishing the generality and limits of the functional relation between reinforcement rate and behavioral persistence. Strategies for establishing the generality of behavioral relations are reviewed, followed by a brief summary of the evidence for the generality of behavioral momentum.     

腹内脂肪与胰岛素抵抗

腹内脂肪与胰岛素抵抗的关系密切,它在形态、脂解等方面不同于皮下脂肪。脂肪细胞分泌的细胞因子在胰岛素抵抗的发生发展中有着重要的作用。明确腹内脂肪致胰岛素抵抗的机制有益于代谢综合征的防治。     

儿科病房抗生素耐药情况调查及干预对策

调查儿科病房送检标本中优势细菌分布情况及耐药率,272株优势菌中产β-内酰胺酶菌占69.5%,其主要原因是儿科抗生素使用率明显高于成人,且较多的应用β-内酰胺类抗生素,分析儿科抗生素应用现状及危害,并提出抗生素滥用的干预对策。     

Cognitive And Self-Regulation Aspects Of Perfectionism And Their Implications For Treatment: Introduction To The Special Issue

The current article provides an overview of the papers included in this special issue on the cognitive and self-regulation aspects of perfectionism and their implications for treatment. Themes expressed in these papers include the association between perfectionism and deficits in cognitive self-management, the significant link between distress and automatic thoughts reflecting the need to be perfect, the importance of examining mediators and moderators of the association between perfectionism and psychological distress, and the specific role of perfectionism in suicidal tendencies and self-harm. It is also argued that certain core features of perfectionism and its associated correlates tend to impede treatment progress. Central factors associated with perfectionism that have a deleterious impact on treatment progress include the fear of failure and fear of embarrassment and exposure, a punishing orientation toward the self, pessimism and hopelessness about the possibility of recovery, and a rigid adherence to unrealistic goals and standards, including goals for treatment and recovery. We describe case studies illustrating treatment resistance among perfectionists and we reiterate the growing need for empirical research on the efficacy of clinical interventions designed for perfectionists. This article was supported by major research grants from Health Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada to the first two authors, and a Canada Research Chair in Personality & Health awarded to the first author.     

抗菌药物使用中的伦理辨析

抗菌药物合理使用是人与微生物伦理关系的要求,是社会资源优化使用的重要内容并普惠与民。抗菌药物合理使用恰是良好医患关系注释。医疗政策、医院管理对抗菌药物合理使用影响不可替代,医生应主动介入且有社会广泛参与的伦理讨论对抗菌药物合理使用意义重大。     

铜绿假单胞菌I类整合子及耐药基因分析

铜绿假单胞菌是临床上重要的院内感染菌,对多种抗生素耐药。整合子是能捕获并整合外源耐药基因盒,并使之表达的DNA元件。通过整合子水平转移的方式极大地加速了耐药基因在同种及不同种属之间的传播,造成细菌的耐药以至多重耐药问题日益严重。     

Persistence of stereotypic behavior: examining the effects of external reinforcers

Basic research has shown that behavioral persistence is often positively related to rate of reinforcement. This relation, expressed in the metaphor of behavioral momentum, has potentially important implications for clinical application. The current study examined one prediction of the momentum metaphor for automatically reinforced behavior. Participants were 3 children who had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and who engaged in stereotypic behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. Results suggested that stereotypic behavior was more resistant to disruption following periods of access to preferred stimuli delivered on a variable-time schedule than following periods without access to preferred stimuli. The implications of these findings for the treatment of automatically reinforced behavior are discussed.