Gender Awareness Inventory-VA: A Measure of Ideology,Sensitivity, and Knowledge Related to Women Veterans' Health Care

Within the Veterans Health Administration, it has become increasingly important to assess health-care workers' attitudes toward and beliefs about female patients, sensitivity to the unique needs of female patients, and knowledge about women veterans and the programs and services available to them. The current study describes the development of the Gender Awareness Inventory-VA, an instrument that assesses 3 components: gender-role ideology, gender sensitivity, and knowledge among health-care staff. Data were drawn from various samples of Veterans Health Administration employees in a large geographical region (overall N > 1,100; nationally, this population includes roughly 37% minorities). In a series of psychometric inquiries, evidence for reliability and validity was established, and preliminary evidence was provided for the instrument's underlying factor structure.     

Effects of reinforcer magnitude on responding under differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules of rats and pigeons

Experiment I investigated the effects of reinforcer magnitude on differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedule performance in three phases. In Phase 1, two groups of rats (n = 6 and 5) responded under a DRI. 72-s schedule with reinforcer magnitudes of either 30 or 300 microl of water. After acquisition, the water amounts were reversed for each rat. In Phase 2, the effects of the same reinforcer magnitudes on DRL 18-s schedule performance were examined across conditions. In Phase 3, each rat responded unider a DR1. 18-s schedule in which the water amotnts alternated between 30 and 300 microl daily. Throughout each phase of Experiment 1, the larger reinforcer magnitude resulted in higher response rates and lower reinforcement rates. The peak of the interresponse-time distributions was at a lower value tinder the larger reinforcer magnitude. In Experiment 2, 3 pigeons responded under a DRL 20-s schedule in which reinforcer magnitude (1-s or 6-s access to grain) varied iron session to session. Higher response rates and lower reinforcement rates occurred tinder the longer hopper duration. These results demonstrate that larger reinforcer magnitudes engender less efficient DRL schedule performance in both rats and pigeons, and when reinforcer magnitude was held constant between sessions or was varied daily. The present results are consistent with previous research demonstrating a decrease in efficiency as a function of increased reinforcer magnituide tinder procedures that require a period of time without a specified response. These findings also support the claim that DRI. schedule performance is not governed solely by a timing process.     

Effect of drugs on response-duration differentiation VII: response-force requirements

Rats were trained to press a lever for at least 1 s but for less than 1.3 s. The force required to press the lever was then increased or decreased by 10, 15, or 20 g. Increases in the force requirements for lever pressing decreased timing accuracy, but decreases in the force requirement had the opposite effect. Accuracy decreases at increasing force requirements were characterized by an increase in the relative frequency of responses that were too short to meet the reinforcement criterion. In contrast, increases in accuracy when the force requirements were decreased were characterized by increases in response durations that met the reinforcement criterion and decreases in the relative frequency of responses that were too short to produce the reinforcer. Phencyclidine (PCP) and methamphetamine produced dose-dependent decreases in accuracy that were associated primarily with increases in the relative frequency of short response durations, although methamphetamine also produced increases in long response durations at some doses. When the effects of PCP were determined with the force requirement increased by 10 g or decreased by 15 g, the cumulative response-duration distribution shifted toward even shorter response durations. When the effects of methamphetamine were determined with the force requirement on the lever increased by 10 g, the cumulative frequency distribution was shifted toward shorter response durations to about the same extent as it had been before force requirements increased; however, when the force required to press the lever was decreased by 15 g, these shifts toward shorter response durations almost completely disappeared. These results show that increases and decreases in the force requirements for lever pressing have different effects on the accuracy of temporal response differentiation.     

Analyse me

The poem Analyse Me evolved from my desire to understand where and how the creative fitted into the scheme of military veteran mental health treatments in Australia. In 2016, as an Australian Army veteran and a creative writer, I undertook to conduct craft of writing workshops for veterans. However, I found creative arts, in all modes, were not as widely incorporated into treatments and research as I thought. The poem is a creative response to my frustration and disbelief of the results of my research and is a representation of my findings conceptualised to be the clinical and externally measurable treatment modes at one extreme, contrasted against the less definable use of the imagination or the creative at the other. The poem highlights the broad expanse between these extremes. It underlines a view on the difference of gender in treatment and the divide between the detached, clinical analysis and the more personal, intuitive creative response. Analyse Me does not deny the use of one modality over, or to the exclusion, of the other but rather indicates they both have purpose and can be mutually supportive and beneficial.     

Demeter's Compromise: Separation,Loss, and Reconnection in Mothers with Daughters Entering Adulthood

Drawing on contemporary theory of female development that focuses on the dynamics of the mother/daughter relationship regarding issues of separation and individuation, this article examines the treatment of a middle aged mother as she navigates her way through her daughter's adolescence and early adulthood. Psychoanalytic object relations, psychoanalytic relational theory, and feminist theory serve to frame an understanding of the case material in terms of developmental challenges that are uniquely female. Issues around mother/daughter attachment, separation, competition, conflict, and love are explored in the relationships between the patient and her mother, the patient and her daughter, and the patient and the therapist. The therapist's countertransference, intensified by her relationships with her own mother and daughter, suggests the possibility of both pitfalls and opportunities in the treatment. The article attempts to address a gap in psychoanalytic developmental theory, which offers little understanding of the challenges for women in midlife.     

The role of response force on the persistence and structure of behavior during extinction

Behavior Momentum Theory has emerged as a prominent account of resistance to change in both basic and applied research. Although laboratory studies often define precise, repeatable responses, application research often deals with response classes that may vary widely along a number of dimensions. In general, Behavior Momentum Theory has not addressed how response dimensions impact resistance to change, providing an opportunity to expand the model in new directions. Four rats pressed a force transducer under a multiple variable interval (VI) 60‐s VI 60‐s schedule of reinforcement. In one component, responses satisfied the schedule only if the response force fell within a “low” force band requirement; responses in the other schedule were required to satisfy a “high” force band. Once responding stabilized, extinction was programmed for three sessions. Then, the procedures were replicated. The results showed that response force came under discriminative control, but force requirements had no impact on resistance to extinction. In a follow‐up condition, the schedule was changed to a multiple VI 30‐s VI 120‐s schedule and the low‐force band operated in both components. The results showed that behavior maintained by the VI 30‐s schedule was generally more resistant to extinction. A secondary analysis showed that force distributions created under baseline maintained during extinction. Overall, the results suggest that differential response force requirements prevailing in steady state do not affect the course of extinction.     

男性监控配偶、配偶不贞与精子竞争的关系

精子竞争是指同一女性产道中两个或两个以上男人的精子相互竞争卵子的过程。女性得到社会承认的性伙伴可能因精子竞争失败而损失惨重,因为女性私通可能引起男性投资于不携带自己基因的后代。过去研究表明进化而来的男性配偶监控策略可以防止女性不贞,减少精子竞争失败的危险。当前研究发现男性与配偶进行性行为后离别时间越久,男性就越采取出其不意地打电话、独占配偶时间、威胁对配偶感兴趣的男性等手段来监控配偶     

Stimulus control and compounding with ambient odor as a discriminative stimulus on a free-operant baseline

Previous experiments have demonstrated that the simultaneous presentation of independently established discriminative stimuli can control rates of operant responding substantially higher than the rates occasioned by the individual stimuli. This "additive summation" phenomenon has been shown with a variety of different reinforcers (e.g., food, water, shock avoidance, cocaine, and heroin). Discriminative stimuli previously used in such studies have been limited to the visual and auditory sensory modalities. The present experiment sought to (1) establish stimulus control on a free-operant baseline with an ambient olfactory discriminative stimulus, (2) compare olfactory control to that produced with an auditory discriminative stimulus, and (3) determine whether compounding independently established olfactory and auditory discriminative stimuli produces additive summation. Rats lever pressed for food on a variable-interval schedule in the presence of either a tone or an odor, with comparable control developed to each stimulus. In the absence of these stimuli responding was not reinforced. During stimulus compounding tests, the tone-plus-odor compound occasioned more than double the responses occasioned by either the tone or odor presented individually. Thus, the current study (1) established stimulus control with an ambient olfactory discriminative stimulus in a traditional free-operant setting and (2) extended the generality of stimulus-compounding effects by demonstrating additive summation when olfactory and auditory discriminative stimuli were presented simultaneously.     

Offender and crime characteristics of female serial arsonists in Japan

This study of Japanese female serial arsonists examined their crimes and background characteristics. The data were a sample from the national police register containing arson cases resulting in charges in Japan between 1982 and 2005. Serial arsonists were 6% of the arson offenders and 12% of these were female, resulting in 83 female serial arsonist data sets. The mean age was 37.6 years and 43% were unemployed. Nearly half were married. Only 28% had a documented history of mental problems and 22% had a prior arrest, usually for theft (19%). Female serial arsonists are characterised by going to a place near their home with a lighter and setting fire directly to combustible materials. Non‐metric multidimensional scaling was used to analyse 33 variables related to the offences. The arsons could be differentiated in terms of either expressive or instrumental sources of action. Expressive arsons were opportunistic and impulsive acts, motivated by emotional distress. The fires were mostly set close to home. Expressive arsons were characteristic of 66% of the females. Instrumental arsons were often motivated by revenge and involved planned and goal‐directed behaviours. They were committed by 13% of the females. Instrumental arsonists tended to travel further from home. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aggressive behavior induced by electrical stimulation in the midbrain central gray of male rats

Electrical stimulation via electrodes implanted in the lateral hypothalamus may induce intraspecific aggressive behavior. Small electrolytic lesions placed via these electrodes resulted in a five– to tenfold increase in the current threshold for aggression. Degenerating fibers were stained by means of the Fink-Heimer method and could be followed caudally to the dorsal midbrain central gray and to the mammillary bodies. A few axons could be traced rostrally to the medial septum. Aggression could be induced from 10 of 112 electrodes implanted in the central gray; the other electrodes elicited either locomotion, vocalization, jump, or “alarm-like reactions.” The morphology of the induced aggression was similar to the morphology of the hypothalamically induced aggression, though it was often accompanied with motor disturbances and was less intense. Hypothalamic stimulation was combined with simultaneous central gray stimulation in rats with electrodes both in the hypothalamus and in the central gray. Hypothalamic thresholds for aggression could be lowered by this stimulation of the central gray, even when no aggressive responses were observed during central gray stimulation alone. This suggests that, although aggression is not manifest, electrical stimulation may activate neural tissue involved in aggressive behavior. It is concluded that in rats central gray and hypothalamus are part of the same neural network mediating intraspecific aggression.