A 4-K computer language for experimentation with human subjects

This paper describes a conversational language for programming psychological experiments on small computers. The language can handle experiments of considerable complexity or with a large number of stimuli in less than 4-K core storage. The language is convenient for human experimentation because it can evaluate verbal responses and store and selectively display verbal stimuli.     

FEMALE PARTNERS OF BISEXUAL MEN What They Don't Know Might Hurt Them

Individual interviews with 350 behaviorally bisexual men aged 18–30 revealed that 71% of their female sexual partners and 59% of their steady female sexual partners in the past 6 months had not been aware of their homosexual activity. Rates of nondisclosure were higher for African-American than White men. Compared to nondisclosers, men who disclosed to all their female partners were less self-homophobic and perceived their friends, families, and neighbors as more accepting of their homosexual behavior. Compared to men who had disclosed, the nondisclosers had more female partners and used condoms less consistently with women.     

Reduced susceptibility to confirmation bias in schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia (SZ) show cognitive impairments on a wide range of tasks, with clear deficiencies in tasks reliant on prefrontal cortex function and less consistently observed impairments in tasks recruiting the striatum. This study leverages tasks hypothesized to differentially recruit these neural structures to assess relative deficiencies of each. Forty-eight patients and 38 controls completed two reinforcement learning tasks hypothesized to interrogate prefrontal and striatal functions and their interaction. In each task, participants learned reward discriminations by trial and error and were tested on novel stimulus combinations to assess learned values. In the task putatively assessing fronto-striatal interaction, participants were (inaccurately) instructed that one of the stimuli was valuable. Consistent with prior reports and a model of confirmation bias, this manipulation resulted in overvaluation of the instructed stimulus after its true value had been experienced. Patients showed less susceptibility to this confirmation bias effect than did controls. In the choice bias task hypothesized to more purely assess striatal function, biases in endogenously and exogenously chosen actions were assessed. No group differences were observed. In the subset of participants who showed learning in both tasks, larger group differences were observed in the confirmation bias task than in the choice bias task. In the confirmation bias task, patients also showed impairment in the task conditions with no prior instruction. This deficit was most readily observed on the most deterministic discriminations. Taken together, these results suggest impairments in fronto-striatal interaction in SZ, rather than in striatal function per se.     

The relationship between children's self-reported recess problems, and peer acceptance and friendships

This study used three samples to investigate the nature of children's self-reported recess problems and the degree to which these were correlated with children's peer acceptance and mutual friendships. Results suggest that seven student complaints about recess can be grouped into problems with peer conflict and problems with social inclusion. Modest relations were reported between inclusion recess problems and children's mutual friendships and peer acceptance. Relations of conflict recess problems with mutual friendships and peer acceptance were less frequent. Results suggest that self-reported recess problems are a distinct construct from traditional research measures of peer acceptance and friendships.     

School-Based Mental Health Services: Definitions and Models of Effective Practice

ABSTRACT

School-based mental health services are those delivered by school-employed and community-employed providers in school buildings. With the implementation of provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) that funds school-based health centers, school-based mental health services could become more broadly available in communities throughout the United States. Playing a pivotal role in promoting models for school-based services that maximize benefits to children and adolescents while making efficient use of communities' mental health resources are school psychologists. School psychologists, who recognize and respect the separated development of school and community mental health professions, can foster school–agency partnerships to coordinate children's mental health services that are comprehensive, child centered, family focused, and culturally competent. In this article, we provide three case examples using the Participatory Culture-Specific Intervention Model (B. K. Nastasi, R. B. Moore, & K. M. Varjas, 2004 Nastasi, B. K., Moore, R. B., & Varjas, K. M. (2004). School-based mental health services: Creating comprehensive and culturally specific programs. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. [Google Scholar]) as exemplars for the implementation of community partnerships providing comprehensive culturally and contextually relevant school-based mental health services.     

Coping Strategies,Substance Use,Sexual Activity,and HIV Sexual Risks in a Sample of Gay Male STD Patients1

The relationships of coping strategies with levels of substance use and sexual activity, and with HIV sexual risks, are examined in a sample of gay male STD clinic patients (n = 416). Previous research has suggested that use of problem-focused coping strategies should be negatively related to levels of substance use, levels of sexual activity, and HIV sexual risks; use of emotion-focused coping strategies should be positively related to these outcomes. It is argued that substance use and sexual activity clearly fit within a coping perspective, but that the HIV sexual risks/coping relationship is less clear. In multivariate analysis, the problem-focused strategy of advice seeking is negatively related to the number of types of drugs used and to the number of sexual partners; the problem-focused strategy of support seeking is negatively related to the number of days using drugs; and the use of emotion-focused strategies is positively related to the number of types of drugs used. Problem-focused coping strategies are less directly related to engaging in HIV sexual risks when measures of substance use and of sexual activity are included in the prediction; emotion-focused coping strategies are more stably related to HIV risk. Indirect effects of coping on HIV risk are also identified through the effects of coping on the number of types of drugs used, number of sex partners, and number of times having sex. It is proposed that the relationships between coping and levels of substance use and sexual activity reflect the use of these activities as ways of relieving strain, but that relationships between coping and HIV sexual risks involve less clearly understood direct and indirect relationships.     

Effects of attachment styles on the experience of equity in heterosexual couples relationships

Employing one correlational and two experimental studies, this paper examines the influence of attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant) on a person's experience of equity in intimate relationships. While one experimental study employed a priming technique to stimulate the different attachment styles, the other involved vignettes describing fictitious characters with typical attachment styles. As the specific hypotheses about the single equity components have been developed on the basis of the attachment theory, the equity ratio itself and the four equity components (own outcome, own input, partner's outcome, partner's input) are analyzed as dependent variables. While partners with a secure attachment style tend to describe their relationship as equitable (i.e., they give and take extensively), partners who feel anxious about their relationship generally see themselves as being in an inequitable, disadvantaged position (i.e., they receive little from their partner). The hypothesis that avoidant partners would feel advantaged as they were less committed was only supported by the correlational study. Against expectations, the results of both experiments indicate that avoidant partners generally see themselves (or see avoidant vignettes) as being treated equitably, but that there is less emotional exchange than is the case with secure partners. Avoidant partners give and take less than secure ones.     

The Fishbein and Ajzen Theory of Reasoned Action Applied to Contraceptive Behavior: Model Variants and Meaningfulness1

Suggested modifications of the theory of reasoned action, which conceptualize the functional operation of the attitudinal and normative components in intention formation as separate, separate but contingent, and inseparable, are discussed. The model structures are examined with regard to the underlying psychological assumptions (psychological meaningfulness) and with regard to the required scale levels for the model variables, so that the results of model tests are invariant under the admissible scale transformations (formal meaningfulness). Using a procedure that combines “optimal scaling” with hierarchical regression analysis, the model variants are tested for women's (n= 89) and men's (n= 89) intentions to use contraceptive methods (pill, intrauterine device, condom, and natural methods) that require the model variables to be measured on interval scales. The results strongly favored the theory of reasoned action above the other model variants. Only for the subjective norm model was a better model fit found for a belief-only model compared to the original product-sum model. Gender differences were found with regard to the salient belief sets and the explanatory power of the normative model component.