Growing old: A psychoanalyst’s point of view1

With the help of clinical examples, the author shows that psychoanalysis or psychotherapy after the age of 70 can be a fascinating experience, one that enables patients to reconstruct their internal history in such a way that their final years can be given their rightful place in the overall journey through life. Often it will be a matter of going beyond the conflict between paralysing time with the illusion of keeping death at bay and taking the transient nature of life into account in order to perceive its true flavour. We can grow old passively, juxtaposing different periods of our life without linking them together, thereby creating the illusion of time without end; or we can grow old actively, integrating the different phases of our life into a coherent historical narrative. This representation of time leaves the door open for experiences which the author calls ‘small seconds of eternity’. We can all experience such moments when we are deeply moved – joyfully or painfully – by something, so that we perceive another quality of time that goes beyond its chronological dimension without all the same negating it. Helping elderly people to identify these seconds of eternity and catch hold of them can be an invaluable experience for them. Perhaps we need to see our life unfold through the chronology of its different phases in order to discover, second by second, how to express on an everyday basis something of which we have had an inkling in some second of eternity.     

Adaptation to Sperm Competition in Humans

ABSTRACT— With the recognition, afforded by recent evolutionary science, that female infidelity was a recurrent feature of modern humans' evolutionary history has come the development of a unique area in the study of human mating: sperm competition. A form of male–male postcopulatory competition, sperm competition occurs when the sperm of two or more males concurrently occupy the reproductive tract of a female and compete to fertilize her ova. Males must compete for mates, but if two or more males have copulated with a female within a sufficiently short period of time, sperm will compete for fertilizations. Psychological, behavioral, physiological, and anatomical evidence indicates that men have evolved solutions to combat the adaptive problem of sperm competition, but research has only just begun to uncover these adaptations.     

REVIEW OF THE BOOK SNIFFY THE VIRTUAL RAT PRO VERSION 2.0

Sniffy the Virtual Rat Pro Version 2.0 is the most recent update to the Sniffy the Rat program modules. It has an extensive set of simulations related to Pavlovian and operant conditioning. Many of the standard conditioning paradigms and phenomena are contained within this program. Pavlovian effects such as blocking, overshadowing, and stimulus competition are demonstrated in the data output. Operant manipulations allow shaping the behavior of the virtual rat, observing cumulative records of interval and ratio schedules, as well as conducting operant discrimination procedures. In both Pavlovian and operant paradigms, one can generate histograms that predict the degree to which various stimuli control the virtual rat's behavior. On‐screen presentations may keep most users interested, but working with the generated data files sometimes can prove difficult. Overall, this program has a strong potential for facilitating the instruction in undergraduate conditioning courses, serving as an addendum to traditional undergraduate conditioning laboratories and as a supplement to the use of live animals.     

Tests of behavioral-economic assessments of relative reinforcer efficacy: economic substitutes

This experiment was conducted to test predictions of two behavioral-economic approaches to quantifying relative reinforcer efficacy. According to the first of these approaches, characteristics of averaged normalized demand curves may be used to predict progressive-ratio breakpoints and peak responding. The second approach, the demand analysis, rejects the concept of reinforcer efficacy, arguing instead that traditional measures of relative reinforcer efficacy (breakpoint, peak response rate, and choice) correspond to specific characteristics of non-normalized demand curves. The accuracy of these predictions was evaluated in rats' responding for food or fat: two reinforcers known to function as partial substitutes. Consistent with the first approach, predicted peak normalized response output values (Omax) obtained under single-schedule conditions ordinally predicted progressive-ratio breakpoints and peak responding. Predictions of the demand analysis had mixed success. Pmax and Omax were significantly correlated with PR breakpoints and peak responding (respectively) when fat, but not when food, was the reinforcer. Relative consumption of food and fat under single schedules of reinforcement did not predict preference better than chance. The normalized demand analysis is supplemented with the economic concept of diminishing marginal utility, to predict preference shifts across the range of food and fat prices examined.     

我国高校知识女性心理素质特点的调查研究

为教育部“九五”课题《现代高校知识女性心理素质结构的研究》总结性部分。通过对全国15所有代表性高等学校知识女性的调查研究,我们分析了我国高校知识女性的心理素质特点。(1)高校知识女性在智能素质、心理健康素质、角色控制感、开拓性和适应性素质方面优于非高校女性;(2)在智能素质、心理健康素质、角色满意度上低于高校知识男性,而工作压力感、职业满意度优于高校知识男性;(3)从年龄上,中年期高校知识女性的心理承受力最低。     

应对计划对女大学生减肥效果的影响：情绪调节和理想体型有调节的中介作用

为探讨女大学生减肥行动阶段中应对计划、情绪调节和理想体型对减肥效果的影响,该研究采用问卷法调查了201名女大学生。结果表明:(1)情绪调节在应对计划对减肥效果的影响中起完全中介作用;(2)理想体型调节了情绪调节对减肥效果的影响,在理想体型较瘦的人群中,情绪调节水平越高,就越有利于实现减肥目标;(3)整体模型检验发现,应对计划、情绪调节、理想体型与减肥效果形成一个有调节的中介模型;(4)盲目减肥者与合理减肥者在有调节的中介模型中具有跨组一致性。结论:女大学生无论是否应该减肥,在减肥行动阶段中应对计划都要通过提高情绪调节能力促进减肥效果。理想体型调节了这一过程,较低的理想体型有利于实现减肥目标。     

女性生理周期对条件性恐惧习得和消退的影响

动物研究显示, 雌激素调节条件性恐惧习得和消退, 但是, 人类的性激素对条件性恐惧习得和消退的影响还不太清楚。因此, 本研究以大学生为研究对象, 考察女性不同生理周期对条件性情境恐惧的习得和消退的影响。20名经前期和20名经期女被试暴露于3种情境下：无厌恶刺激情境(N)、可预测情境(P)和不可预测情境(U), 预测此3种情境下是否出现厌恶刺激。以在线索条件下和无线索条件下对厌恶刺激的主观预期值为因变量。研究结果显示:在习得阶段, 经期女性在P情境下的条件性线索恐惧的主观预期值高于经前期女性; 经前期女性在3种情境下的条件性情境恐惧的主观预期值都高于经期女性, 但只在N情境和P情境, 与经期女性相比, 经前期女性对厌恶刺激的主观预期值存在显著差异。在消退阶段, 与经期女性相比, 经前期女性在3种情境下的条件性情境恐惧的主观预期值更高, 且经前期女性对厌恶刺激的主观预期值在N情境和P情境显著高于经期女性。该结果显示, 经前期女性对条件性情境恐惧易习得难消退, 表明此生理阶段的性激素影响大脑的情绪调节功能, 从而影响条件性情境恐惧。     

女性员工如何进行性别身份印象管理?

女性员工性别身份印象管理是指女性员工为了扭转他人对自己女性身份的偏见和消极印象,而影响他人看法的过程。性别身份印象管理策略包括社会再范畴化策略和积极区分策略,前者旨在减少与女性身份的联系,后者意在强调女性身份的积极意义。两类策略会对女性获得的评价、职业发展和个人福祉产生不同的效果;工作场所偏好、性别刻板印象强弱等因素调节了这两类策略的效果。未来研究应继续从性别身份印象管理、组织干预和中国文化背景等方面探讨如何减少性别歧视对女性员工的影响。     

Career And Relationship Satisfaction Among Female Faculty in Marriage and Family Therapy Programs

This study explored career and relationship satisfaction of women faculty in accredited marital and family therapy (MFT) programs. Faculty were more satisfied with teaching duties than research or service duties and more satisfied with service than research duties. A backwards multiple regression procedure showed that the combined variables of psychosocial mentoring functions, expanded service duties, and having received an award for research or service were associated with greater levels of career satisfaction while career mentoring functions were associated with reduced levels of career satisfaction. Implications and suggestions for improving the academic climate are presented for institutions, MFT programs, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE).