Responding changes systematically within sessions during conditioning procedures.

When the procedure is held constant within an experimental session, responding often changes systematically within that session. Many of these within-session changes in responding cannot be dismissed as learning curves or by-products of satiation. They have been observed in studies of positive reinforcement, avoidance, punishment, extinction, discrimination, delayed matching to sample, concept formation, maze and alley running, and laboratory analogues of foraging, as well as in the unconditioned substrates of conditioned behavior. When aversive stimuli are used, responding usually increases early in the session. When positive reinforcers are used, responding changes in a variety of ways, including increasing, decreasing, and bitonic functions. Both strong and minimal reinforcement procedures produce within-session decreases in positively reinforced behavior. Within-session changes in responding have substantial theoretical and methodological implications for research in conditioning.     

THE LOVE RACKET: DEFINING LOVE AND AGAPEFOR THE LOVE‐AND‐SCIENCE RESEARCH PROGRAM

Abstract. Scholars of religion and science have generated remarkable scholarship in recent years in their explorations of love. Exactly how scholars involved in this budding field believe that love and science should relate and/or be integrated varies greatly. What they share in common is the belief that issues of love are of paramount importance and that the various scientific disciplines—whether natural, social, or religious—must be brought to bear upon how best to understand love. I briefly introduce the emergence of the love‐and‐science research program and note that scholars have not done well defining what they mean by love. I suggest that the present surge in love scholarship will fail to produce the positive results that it otherwise might if love is not defined well. I provide and defend a definition of love adequate for those doing love‐and‐science research: To love is to act intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including God), to promote well‐being. To explain better what this simple definition entails, I explore its three main phrases. Love is said to have many forms, but agape is the form to which the love‐and‐science literature most commonly refers. I comment briefly on the debates about how to best understand agape, noting sixteen different definitions proposed by major scholars. I identify weaknesses in many of them and then offer what I argue is a more adequate definition of agape as intentional response to promote well‐being when confronted by that which generates ill‐being. In short, agape repays evil with good. While research on love and science requires much more than adequate definitions, I believe that the definitions I proffer can prove useful in furthering the love‐and‐science research program.     

Nouns and Verbs: A Comparison of Definitional Style

The present investigation is a study of the definitional style of nouns and verbs in typically developing school-age children. A total of 30 children in upper-elementary grades provided verbal definitions for 10 common high-frequency nouns (e.g., apple, boat, baby) and 10 common high-frequency verbs (e.g., climb, sing, throw). All definitions were coded and scored for semantic content (meaning) and grammatical form (syntax). Results revealed no significant difference between noun and verb definitions for content scores. For form, however, noun definition scores were significantly higher than verb definition scores. A supplementary analysis was conducted to explore development of noun and verb definitions in upper-elementary grades. Input factors, word frequency, as well as theory of the organization of the mental lexicon are discussed in relation to definitional skill.     

对心理学实验教学模式的再研究

为了更新心理学的教学理念和方法,笔者反思自身单纯讲解的传统教学模式的不足,对实验教学模式进行再研究,以加强教学的主体性、科学性、应用性和实践性。课题深入研究实验教学模式的内涵和操作类型,用教育实验法论证该模式的实效,证实该模式更能使学生乐学会学。该研究形成实验教学模式的若干理念,揭示出取得教学效果的内在原理。研究证明：实验教学模式有其他教学模式不可替代的独特作用和综合效益,能大幅提高心理学的教学质量。     

应当重视医生“公共人”的角色定位

“经济人”的价值理念刺激了医疗行业的逐利行为,我国公立医院公益性淡化已然是事实,医生的“公共性”日渐缺失.医患之间的信任危机从来没有像今天这样严峻,很重要的原因是医生的价值取向的迷失.医生确实面临多价值选择冲突,但过分强调“经济人”特性,而忽视公共性的重要,已然导致了种种恶果.所以,应当重视医生“公共人”的角色定位.医生和医院要回归对医疗职业本性的认识,让医生成长为“为了人类的幸福和自身的完美而工作”的“公共人”,让医院回归“为社会公众谋取利益,追求社会效益目标”的公益性.     

Fifty years on: a training for the 21 century, from couple to community

The paper describes the gradual transformation of the structures, process and content of the adult training at the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP) from 1997 when the potential for individuation had gone awry through lack of a culturally relevant and coherent programme until 2005 when trainees' professional and personal individuation could be enhanced by a process and a curriculum representing fairly the interests and beliefs of the range of different approaches to Jungian psychology that are to be found in the SAP. The process has taken eight years to complete and in the paper, the authors, two successive Directors of Training, describe the persistent resistances to necessary change from within their Society, focusing in particular on the key role of the founder member; the privileging of the internal world at the expense of significant external factors; a confusion of roles among members between volunteers and professionals and last, but by no means least, the contamination of the educative task and the creation of a training community by fantasies of the mother/infant couple.     

Popper on Definitions

Summary  In the present paper I shall first summarize Popper’s criticism of the traditional method of definition, and then go on to comment critically on his own views on the form and function of so-called nominalist definitions.     

Service Needs of Foster Families with Children who have Disabilities

We examined the service needs of foster families with children who have disabilities. Foster parents in a large Canadian city were asked “What services or supports would be helpful to you?” The responses to this question were edited for clarity and to eliminate redundancies, and sorted into piles of like statements by a group of 15 foster care professionals. Two types of statistical analysis were applied to the sorting of the statements to describe the relationship between statements and their groupings. The major concepts were identified according to the contents of the cluster and a map was constructed to provide a graphic representation of the conceptualization process. The major services and supports identified in this study were: support in the community, financial support, accommodating school system, good relationships with social workers, responsive professionals, information, comprehensive medical care, services for aboriginal children and families, transitional services, and respite.     

Pigeons' discrimination of paintings by Monet and Picasso

Pigeons successfully learned to discriminate color slides of paintings by Monet and Picasso. Following this training, they discriminated novel paintings by Monet and Picasso that had never been presented during the discrimination training. Furthermore, they showed generalization from Monet's to Cezanne's and Renoir's paintings or from Picasso's to Braque's and Matisse's paintings. These results suggest that pigeons' behavior can be controlled by complex visual stimuli in ways that suggest categorization. Upside-down images of Monet's paintings disrupted the discrimination, whereas inverted images of Picasso's did not. This result may indicate that the pigeons' behavior was controlled by objects depicted in impressionists' paintings but was not controlled by objects in cubists' paintings.     

青少年心理健康素质的概念和结构初探

青少年心理健康素质是健康心理学中具有开创性和探索性的研究领域,因此涉及若干理论问题需要探讨。其中青少年心理健康素质的基本概念和基本结构是该研究领域首先应探讨的基本理论问题。