A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Substantive and Contextual Mediation Tactics1

The effectiveness of three mediation tactics was compared in two laboratory studies. It was hypothesized that a content mediation procedure which involved identifying the priorities of both parties and suggesting a trade-off of low for high priority issues would be most effective in helping to resolve the dispute, followed by an issue identification mediation procedure in which priorities were identified but no suggestions were made. A positive framing mediation procedure in which the benefits of a negotiated settlement were emphasized was expected to be somewhat less effective. In Study 1, 64 students played the role of company negotiator and interacted with a programmed citizen group negotiator. All three mediation tactics produced more satisfactory outcomes (higher joint payoffs) than did a no-mediation condition. In Study 2, 46 pairs of students negotiated with one another and received content mediation, issue identification mediation, positive framing mediation, or no mediation. Negotiators receiving content mediation achieved more satisfactory outcomes (higher joint profits) than did negotiators in the other 3 conditions. Results are discussed in terms of a contingency model of mediation effectiveness.     

Understanding the impact of HIV diagnosis amongst gay men in Scotland: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Objectives: Although a wide literature details the psychological impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis, it predates the introduction of effective treatment for HIV (i.e. anti-retroviral therapies, ARTs). This article explores the psychological impact of HIV diagnosis in post-ART accounts. This is important, given the recent policy developments which focus upon increasing HIV testing and thus diagnoses.

Design: This study presents a qualitative exploration of the experiential accounts of HIV-positive gay men living in Scotland. A total of 14 HIV-positive gay men took part in open-ended interviews.

Methods: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to identify recurrent themes across the interviews.

Results: Our analysis focuses upon the participants’ struggles in adjusting to their HIV status. Diagnosis was a deeply shocking and unexpected experience. Stigma and fear of prejudice dominated their accounts. HIV was understood, variously, as a shameful, fatal and life-changing condition. Overall, within these accounts there was little sense of HIV normalisation.

Conclusions: In Scotland, where HIV prevalence is low, and where no accessible HIV-positive sub-culture exists, there is on-going psychological distress and morbidity amongst gay men testing HIV positive. As HIV-related policy increasingly focuses on increasing rates of antibody testing, there is a need to reduce the psychosocial costs associated with HIV-positive diagnoses.     

Mental health,religion and spirituality: Attitudes,experience and expertise among mental health professionals and religious leaders in Somerset

This article reviews the relationship between mental health and religion/spirituality over the last twenty years as a background to exploring the current attitudes, experience and expertise of mental heath professionals and religious leaders in Somerset. The results of two research questionnaires are compared, there is a literature review, and conclusions are drawn to help provide a fuller picture of the current religious and spiritual services available to users of the mental health services. These provide useful pointers to improve these services and to understand the professional and institutional barriers to such improvements.     

Clamped Corticosterone (B) Reveals the Effect of Endogenous B on Both Facilitated Responsivity to Acute Restraint and Metabolic Responses to Chronic Stress

To determine the effects of both corticosterone (B) and chronic stressors on acute ACTH responses to restraint, young male rats were exposed to streptozotocin-induced diabetes, cold (5-7 degreesC) or intracerebroventricular (icv) neuropeptide Y (NPY) for 5 d and then exposed to restraint within 2 h after lights on. Two groups of rats were studied: intact and adrenalectomized replaced with B pellets that maintained plasma B in the normal mean 24-h range of intact rats. In addition to ACTH and B responses to restraint on d 5, body weight, food intake, fat depots, glucose and other hormones were measured to determine the role of stress-induced elevations in B on energy balance. ACTH responses to restraint were normal in intact rats subjected to diabetes or cold. By contrast, there was no ACTH or B response to restraint in NPY-infused intact rats. All 3 groups of chronically stimulated adrenalectomized rats with clamped B had facilitated ACTH responses to restraint compared to their treatment controls. Overall food intake increased in all groups of stressed rats; however, augmented intake occurred only during the light in intact rats and equally in the light and dark in B-clamped rats. White adipose depot weights were decreased by both diabetes and cold and increased by NPY in intact rats; the decreases with cold and increases with NPY were both blunted and changes in fat stores were not significant in adrenalectomized, B-clamped rats. We conclude that: 1. diabetes- and cold-induced facilitation of restraint-induced afferent input to hypothalamic control of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is opposed in intact rats by the elevated feedback signal of B secretion; 2. NPY does not induce facilitation of afferent stress pathways; 3. chronic stimulation of the HPA axis induces acute hyperresponsiveness of hypothalamic neurons to restraint provided that the afferent input of this acute stimulus is not prevented by B feedback; 4. stimulus-induced elevations in B secretion result in day-time feeding; 5. insensitivity of both caloric efficiency and white fat stores to chronic stress in adrenalectomized, B-clamped rats results from loss of normally variable B levels.     

Mediation Tactics: A Comparison of Field and Laboratory Research1

This article responds to a concern that laboratory experiments, relative to field research, are poorly suited for the study of mediation. An overview of the study of mediation is presented. Methods of field and laboratory research on mediation are described. Then the issue of the generalizability of laboratory research to field settings is discussed. Finally, the results of field and laboratory research on mediation tactics are compared. Most research on when mediators choose to use specific tactics has been field research, but the few laboratory studies have provided comparable results. Both laboratory and field research have been employed to determine the effectiveness of mediation tactics in helping the parties to settle the dispute and fairly consistent results have been obtained across these settings. We conclude that laboratory experiments on mediation should not be considered inferior to field research methods, but rather should be considered complementary.     

An enhancement to ACT: A stand-alone disk driver compatible with RDOS

An extension to the ACT computer language was described which provides for the storing of data on a high-speed moving head disk. Data stored on disk may then be retrieved and analyzed using the disk-based operating systems and high-level computer languages, such as FORTRAN and BASIC, available from the computer manufacturer. Advantages as well as limitations of the extended version of ACT were discussed.     

Short-term estrogen treatment in ovariectomized rats augments hippocampal acetylcholine release during place learning

Estrogen modulates learning and memory in ovariectomized and naturally cycling female rats, especially in tasks using spatial learning and navigation. Estrogen also modulates cholinergic function in various forebrain structures. Past studies have shown positive correlations between hippocampal ACh output and performance on hippocampus-dependent tasks. The present study examined whether estradiol replacement would potentiate hippocampal ACh release during place learning. In vivo microdialysis and HPLC were used to measure extracellular ACh levels in the hippocampus of ovariectomized female rats that had received s.c. injections of 17beta-estradiol (10 microg) or sesame oil (vehicle treatment) 48 and 24h prior to training on a place task. Estrogen did not alter baseline levels of extracellular ACh in the hippocampus. During training, hippocampal ACh increased in ovariectomized rats regardless of estrogen status. However, while estradiol did not enhance learning in this experiment, estradiol significantly potentiated the increase in hippocampal ACh release seen during place training. This represents the first demonstration of on-line assessment of ACh output in hippocampus during learning in female rats and suggests that estrogen-dependent modulation of ACh release during training might control activation of different neural systems used during learning.     

A tool for tracking visual attention: The Restricted Focus Viewer

Eye-tracking equipment has proven useful in examining the cognitive processes people use when understanding and reasoning with visual stimuli. However, eye-tracking has several drawbacks: accurate eye-tracking equipment is expensive, it is often awkward for participants, it requires frequent recalibration, and the data can be difficult to interpret. We introduce an alternative tool: theRestricted Focus Viewer (RFV). This is a computer program that takes an image, blurs it, and displays it on a computer monitor, allowing the participant to see only a small region of the image in focus at any time. The region in focus can be moved using the computer mouse. The RFV records what the participant is focusing on at any point in time. It is cheap, nonintrusive, does not require calibration, and provides accurate data about which region is being focused on. We describe this tool and also provide experimental comparisons with eye-tracking. The RFV (Version 2.1) is freely available at http://www.csse.monash.edu. au/projects/RFV/.     

Sad and happy emotion discrimination in music by children with cochlear implants

Children using cochlear implants (CIs) develop speech perception but have difficulty perceiving complex acoustic signals. Mode and tempo are the two components used to recognize emotion in music. Based on CI limitations, we hypothesized children using CIs would have impaired perception of mode cues relative to their normal hearing peers and would rely more heavily on tempo cues to distinguish happy from sad music. Study participants were children with 13 right CIs and 3 left CIs (M = 12.7, SD = 2.6 years) and 16 normal hearing peers. Participants judged 96 brief piano excerpts from the classical genre as happy or sad in a forced-choice task. Music was randomly presented with alterations of transposed mode, tempo, or both. When music was presented in original form, children using CIs discriminated between happy and sad music with accuracy well above chance levels (87.5%) but significantly below those with normal hearing (98%). The CI group primarily used tempo cues, whereas normal hearing children relied more on mode cues. Transposing both mode and tempo cues in the same musical excerpt obliterated cues to emotion for both groups. Children using CIs showed significantly slower response times across all conditions. Children using CIs use tempo cues to discriminate happy versus sad music reflecting a very different hearing strategy than their normal hearing peers. Slower reaction times by children using CIs indicate that they found the task more difficult and support the possibility that they require different strategies to process emotion in music than normal.