Affect and automatic mood maintenance

The hedonic contingency model (HCM; Wegener & Petty, 1994) states that individuals have learned to seek out positive activities while in a happy mood in order to maintain or elevate that mood. We argue that this tendency may become overlearned and, thus, automated. More specifically, the experience of a happy mood was predicted to automatically activate the mood-maintenance tendency proposed by the HCM. Participants induced into happy, sad, or neutral moods ranked their preferences for future activities that were nonconsciously associated with either a positive or negative valence. Supporting the notion of automatic mood maintenance, happy participants appeared to evaluate the affective qualities of the future activities and base their preferences on this evaluation without realizing that they were doing so. Theoretical implications of this finding are discussed.     

Dissimilarity cumulation theory in arc-connected spaces

This paper continues the development of the Dissimilarity Cumulation theory and its main psychological application, Universal Fechnerian Scaling [Dzhafarov, E.N and Colonius, H. (2007). Dissimilarity Cumulation theory and subjective metrics. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 51, 290-304]. In arc-connected spaces the notion of a chain length (the sum of the dissimilarities between the chain’s successive elements) can be used to define the notion of a path length, as the limit inferior of the lengths of chains converging to the path in some well-defined sense. The class of converging chains is broader than that of converging inscribed chains. Most of the fundamental results of the metric-based path length theory (additivity, lower semicontinuity, etc.) turn out to hold in the general dissimilarity-based path length theory. This shows that the triangle inequality and symmetry are not essential for these results, provided one goes beyond the traditional scheme of approximating paths by inscribed chains. We introduce the notion of a space with intermediate points which generalizes (and specializes to when the dissimilarity is a metric) the notion of a convex space in the sense of Menger. A space is with intermediate points if for any distinct there is a different point such that (where D is dissimilarity). In such spaces the metric G induced by D is intrinsic: coincides with the infimum of lengths of all arcs connecting to In Universal Fechnerian Scaling D stands for either of the two canonical psychometric increments and (ψ denoting discrimination probability). The choice between the two makes no difference for the notions of arc-connectedness, convergence of chains and paths, intermediate points, and other notions of the Dissimilarity Cumulation theory.     

THE REDUCTION OF STEALING IN SECOND GRADERS USING A GROUP CONTINGENCY1

Three classes of second graders served as subjects in this study of the effects of two types of intervention programs upon stealing: (1) an antistealing lecture with no specific contingency implied, and (2) a direct group contingency applied, whereby children were rewarded with (a) extra free time for no thefts, (b) allowed normal free time if stolen items were returned, and (c) punished with loss of free time if stolen items were not returned. A multiple-baseline design across the three classes showed the group contingency to be effective in reducing stealing behavior; the anti-stealing lecture was ineffective.     

Reflections on the early stages of the Oedipus complex: The parental couple in relation to psychoanalytic work

The author refers to the parental couple as it appears in relation to the Oedipus complex at the various levels of development and psychical maturation. A 'pathological' Oedipus situation is differentiated from a 'normal' one. Accordingly the author distinguishes the primitive Oedipal fantasies about the parental couple represented in the myth by the parents of Thebes and the parents of Corinth (and the influence that these can have on the psychoanalytic work), from a couple who have reached truly creative functioning. Furthermore, it is pointed out how elements are activated in the therapist's mind: emotional qualities of a feminine maternal and masculine paternal kind that either collaborate in containing and promoting the psychoanalytic process and psychic development of the patient or else fail in this task.     

You can't miss what you've never had: Can you?: The challenges and struggles of single parenthood from a psychoanalytic perspective

The issue of the growth of single-parent families has been in the forefront of political, social and moral debate in recent years. Children from single-parent families tend to be over-represented in clinic populations. Yet this state of My being may be no more potentially pathological than the nuclear family, which can become conceptually idealized The aim of this paper is to look behind the statistics and examine the impact on children of life in a single-parent family, to explore how this may be managed, and to look for potentiating factors which can enable good-enough development to unfold. Case material is used to illustrate the theme.     

The Concept of Miracle

The concept of miracle has often been regarded as irreconcilable with the concept of natural law. But this contradiction applies only to an understanding of a miracle as a break of natural law. Such a violation would destroy the assertion of natural law, because its universal claim does not permit exceptions. However, the idea of miracle need not be conceived in this way, though it has often been done since medieval times. Augustine thought of miracles simply as unusual events that contradict our accustomed views of the course of nature but not nature itself. According to that definition of miracle, no contradiction of natural laws need be assumed. It is sufficient to regard unusual occurrences as "signs" of God's special activity in creation.     

On Selective Left Neglect during Walking in a Child

In this article we describe a child affected by right parieto-occipital lesion due to head injury. The patient showed left hemianopia, but not unilateral spatial neglect on traditional paper-and-pencil tests and on "ecological" tests. However, his parents reported frequent collisions with obstacles on the left side. A specific test was set up: The patient had to kick down skittles put on both sides of a route traced on the floor. He kicked down 89% of skittles on the right, but only 38% on the left side. These findings are discussed in light of recent theories on unilateral neglect.     

DOES USE OF TANGIBLE REWARDS WITH INDIVIDUAL CHILDREN AFFECT PEER OBSERVERS?1

The common assumption that employing tangible rewards with individual children will have adverse effects upon peer observers was studied in the preschool setting. Multiple-subject, multiple-baseline procedures were applied to two classes of children, aged 3.5 to 6 yr. In each group, three consecutive children with low base rates of in-seat behavior received a verbal contingency and food rewards for sitting, while peers (with either low or high rates of in-seat behavior) received neither food nor teacher attention for sitting. Peer reactions measured were in-seat behavior, aggression, nonaggressive disruptive behavior, and complaints. The procedures neither decreased the in-seat behavior of peer observers, nor increased their aggressive or disruptive behavior. On the contrary, peers with low base rates of sitting initially displayed an abrupt, but temporary, increase in sitting. Moreover, although no compensatory attention was delivered, all children exhibited improved sitting by the end of the study. Complaints, which consisted mainly of requests for rewards, decreased in frequency with successive program phases, and within each phase. It is suggested that the class improvement in sitting behavior and the absence of negative effects on observers may be partially due to the high frequency of attention the teacher maintained for other desired behavior and the lack of attention to children's complaints.     

Effects of a pairing contingency on behavior in a three-person programmed environment

Four groups of three subjects resided for 10 days within a continuously programmed environment. Subjects followed a behavioral program of contingently scheduled activities that determined individual and social behaviors. A triadic condition was in effect when all three subjects were required to select simultaneous access to a group area before it became available for a social episode. A dyadic condition was in effect when access to a group area was permitted to any combination of two, and only two, subjects. The effects of these two conditions on individual and social behaviors were studied in reversal designs with several successive days devoted to each condition. Results showed that durations of social activities and synchronization of individual activities were greater during triadic conditions than during dyadic conditions. Under both conditions, wake-sleep cycles departed from a typical day-night rhythm for most subjects. Instances when subjects did not respond to each others' attempts to initiate conversations using the intercom were generally more frequent during dyadic than triadic conditions. Physical distance during triadic social episodes was found to be related to sociability levels during dyadic conditions.     

Saying and doing: A contingency-space analysis

Correspondences between verbal responding (saying) and nonverbal responding (doing) may be organized in terms of the classes of verbal/nonverbal relations into which particular instances of verbal/nonverbal response sequences can enter. Contingency spaces, which display relations among events in terms of the probability of one event given or not given another, have been useful in analyses of nonverbal behavior. We derive a taxonomy of verbal/nonverbal behavior relations from a contingency space that takes into account two conditional probabilities: the probability of a nonverbal response given a verbal response and that probability given the absence of the verbal response. For example, positive correspondence may be said to exist as a response class when the probability of doing is high given saying but is otherwise low. Criteria for other generalized classes, including negative correspondence, follow from this analysis.