“We want the world and we want it now”: Materialism,time perspectives and problem spending tendency of Chinese

Chinese consumers' spending has been expanding rapidly in the past decade, and along with it household and credit card debt. The present research collected evidence to triangulate the contention that materialism is positively related with Chinese's problem spending tendency (PST), and that present‐time‐perspective (PTP) and future‐time perspectives (FTP) interact systematically with materialism to affect PST. A survey of the general population in Macao, China (Study 1; N = 239) confirmed that materialism was positively correlated with PST. An interaction between materialism and PTP intensified the relationship, whereas an interaction with FTP weakened the relationship. Another survey with a sample of university students (Study 2; N = 223) again found positive relationships among PST, materialism, and PTP, as measured by temporal discount rate. But further exploration showed that PST was only related with temporal discounting among high materialists, but not among low materialists. Study 3 experimentally examined the causal effects of materialism and FTP on PST. When being primed of an orientation towards materialism (n = 33), the participants' planned consumption doubled that of the control group (n = 31). A FTP prime interacted with materialism prime and put a “damper” on participants' planned spending (n = 29), compared to their counterparts who were not primed of such a time perspective.     

Interdependent Group Contingency Management for Cocaine-Dependent Methadone Maintenance Patients

Contingency management (CM) for drug abstinence has been applied to individuals independently even when delivered in groups. We developed a group CM intervention in which the behavior of a single, randomly selected, anonymous individual determined reinforcement delivery for the entire group. We also compared contingencies placed only on cocaine abstinence (CA) versus one of four behaviors (CA, treatment attendance, group CM attendance, and methadone compliance) selected randomly at each drawing. Two groups were formed with 22 cocaine-dependent community-based methadone patients and exposed to both CA and multiple behavior (MB) conditions in a reversal design counterbalanced across groups for exposure order. The group CM intervention proved feasible and safe. The MB condition improved group CM meeting attendance relative to the CA condition.     

On Adhering to Judicial Instructions: Reactions of Dogmatic and Nondogmatic Juries to the Judge's Charge in an Entrapment Case1

Juries differing in dogmatism assessed the culpability of a defendant who had sold heroin to an undercover police officer and pled entrapment as his legal defense. The extenuating circumstances surrounding the drug sale provided either a reasonably compelling justification (high extenuating circumstances) or minimal justification (low extenuating circumstances) for an entrapment plea. Because of their alleged respect for and reliance on the pronouncements of authority figures, it was hypothesized that dogmatic juries would be more influenced than nondogmatic juries by the judge's charge about the meaning of entrapment (which, in this case, focused on the propriety of police conduct). Analyses of the jury deliberations, the decisions rendered, and postexperimental questionnaire data supported this hypothesis. Some implications of these outcomes are discussed.     

Effects of elaboration and relational distinctiveness on sentence memory

Memory for normal and distinct target sentences in elaborated and isolated contexts was examined in two experiments. Distinctiveness was operationalized as the uniqueness of the stated relation among the elements (words) of the sentence. In both experiments distinct target sentences were recalled significantly better than normal target sentences. Robust elaboration effects emerged only in Experiment 2, however, when care was taken to construct elaborations that were causally related to the target sentences. Further, the positive mnemonic effects of elaboration in Experiment 2 combined additively with the distinctiveness effects. These results demonstrate that text manipulations emphasizing both relational distinctiveness and causal elaboration facilitate memory performance. Several possible theoretical mechanisms underlying this facilitation are outlined.     

Establishing praise as a conditioned reinforcer: Pairing with one versus multiple reinforcers

Praise and other forms of attention may not function as reinforcers for the behavior of children with autism. Previous research demonstrated that contingently pairing praise with reinforcers (response stimulus) can establish praise as a conditioned reinforcer. We evaluated a procedure for establishing praise as a generalized conditioned reinforcer (pair praise with four reinforcers) and compared it with a procedure to establish praise as a conditioned reinforcer (pair praise with one reinforcer). We compared the two conditions in a reversal design with “praise” and “no programmed consequence” conditions rapidly alternated after pairing phases. With three out of five participants with autism, responding in the “pair‐with‐four” condition showed higher levels of responding or more increasing trends compared with that in “pair‐with‐one” condition. We also replicated previous contingent pairing research with two participants in a multiple baseline across participants design. A limitation was the absence of manipulating motivating operations in assessing the efficacy of praise as a generalized conditioned reinforcer. Nevertheless, these data contribute to the research on establishing praise as a reinforcer, and we recommend directions for future research.     

Inhibition and Disinhibition of Male Aggression Against Females: A Personality Moderator Approach

Three experiments examined the role of individual differences in combination with contextual factors hypothesized to moderate the level of hostility toward females evident in male participants' responses. In Study I, we manipulated survey context and examined the influence of participants' levels of rape myth acceptance (RMA) on self-reported rape likelihood. In Study 2, we examined the interactive role of target gender and participants' levels of sex guilt (SG) on aggression toward the target after exposure to an erotic film. Study 3 results suggested that high SG males have particularly negative responses to women (but not men) who enjoy erotic presentations, consistent with a "Jack-the-Ripper" interpretation of the Study 2 findings.     

Soft tissue contributions to impact forces simulated using a four-segment wobbling mass model of forefoot-heel landings

The purpose of this investigation was to develop and evaluate a wobbling mass model of a female performing a drop landing and to examine the influence of soft tissue properties on the impact loads experienced. A planar model comprising a foot, shank, thigh and upper body segment was developed. Spring-damper systems coupled the foot to the ground and the wobbling masses to the rigid masses. Unlike traditional wobbling mass models of landing, the model included a foot segment, which allowed replication of forefoot-heel landing techniques and also used subject and movement-specific properties to simulate the landings. Kinematics and force data collected for three drop landings (height 0.46 m) performed by a female were separately used to drive and evaluate the model. The wobbling mass model successfully reproduced the measured force profiles to 9% (RMS differences) of the measured range and replicated the measured peak vertical ground reaction forces to 6%. The accuracies of the wobbling mass model and a corresponding rigid mass model were compared. The inclusion of soft tissue properties in the model contributed up to an 8.6 bodyweights reduction in peak impact loading and produced a 52% more accurate replication of the measured force profiles. The prominent role soft tissues have in load attenuation and the benefits of modelling soft tissue in simulations of landings were therefore highlighted. The success of the wobbling mass model in replicating the kinetics of actual landing performances suggests the model may be used in the future to gain a realistic insight into load attenuation strategies used by females.     

AN ALTERNATING TREATMENTS COMPARISON OF TWO INTENSIVE INTERVENTIONS FOR FOOD REFUSAL

We compared two treatment packages involving negative reinforcement contingencies for 3 children with chronic food refusal. One involved physically guiding the child to accept food contingent on noncompliance, whereas the other involved nonremoval of the spoon until the child accepted the presented food. Subsequent to baseline, an alternating treatments comparison was implemented in a multiple baseline design across subjects. After each child had been exposed to at least nine sessions of each treatment condition and percentage of bites accepted had increased to at least 80%, the child's caregivers selected the preferred treatment package. The results indicated that both treatments were effective in establishing food acceptance. However, physical guidance was associated with fewer corollary behaviors, shorter meal durations, and parental preference.