A Social Learning Approach to Increasing Blood Donations1

A field experiment conducted in high schools throughout the country was aimed at increasing the number of high school students who donate blood. Special interventions that emphasized psychological or educational approaches to heightening motivation to donate, as well as a combined intervention, were compared with the usual approach taken at blood drives. Psychological interventions in which social learning principles (modeling, perceptions of social norms) played important roles either alone or in combination with an educational (informational) approach were more successful in stimulating blood donations than either an educational approach alone or the approaches traditionally followed by the participating local blood centers. The results demonstrated that use of social learning principles in designing interventions to strengthen socially relevant altruistic behavior could be valuable both practically and theoretically.     

Humour Perception and Creation between Parents and 3‐ to 6‐month‐old Infants

Humour and laughter are universal to the human psychological experience and have serious developmental and evolutionary implications. Despite the early emergence of laughter in infancy, infants have been largely ignored in the humour research and humour has been largely ignored in the infant research. The present study describes the emergence of humour perception and creation in a sample of 20 parent–infant dyads who were followed from ages 3‐to‐ 6 months. The study examined how infants discover that absurd nonverbal behaviour, known as ‘clowning’, is amusing in the context of social engagement with caregivers. Results indicate that parents primarily use clowning when attempting to amuse their infants and pair these behavioural absurdities with affective cues like smiling and laughing. As they got older, infants were more likely to laugh and smile in response to clowning. Infants' ability to create humor via clowning also increased with age, starting with simple shrieks at 3 months to imitating absurd actions by 5 months. These increases are partly potentially explained by accompanying increases in parental smiling, laughing and clowning in response to infant clowning. Future research should employ more diverse samples and experimentally investigate the role of parental affect and social referencing in infants' interpretation of absurd behavior. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decolonizing the Language of Lutheran Theology: Confessions,Mission, Indians,and the Globalization of Hybridity

Abstract : Christianity as we know it in the United States is essentially a european ethnic religious movement, one that has necessitated decolonizing processes as it has spread into the formerly euro‐colonized global world. In many ways, lutheranism has been and continues to be even more discretely ethnocentric, based largely in the thinking, the cultures, and the languages of the germanic north. This essay challenges lutheran theologians to begin a dedicated process of decoding the narrowly ethnic and implicitly colonizing language of lutheran theology.     

The relationship between religion and cardiovascular outcomes and all-cause mortality in the women's health initiative observational study

Some studies suggest that religiosity may be related to health outcomes. The current investigation, involving 92,395 Women's Health Initiative Observational Study participants, examined the prospective association of religious affiliation, religious service attendance, and strength and comfort from religion with subsequent cardiovascular outcomes and death. Baseline characteristics and responses to religiosity questions were collected at enrollment. Women were followed for an average of 7.7 years and outcomes were judged by physician adjudicators. Cox proportional regression models were run to obtain hazard ratios (HR) of religiosity variables and coronary heart disease (CHD) and death. After controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and prior health variables, self-report of religious affiliation, frequent religious service attendance, and religious strength and comfort were associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality [HR for religious affiliation = 0.84; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.75–0.93] [HR for service attendance = 0.80; CI: 0.73–0.87] [HR for strength and comfort = 0.89; CI: 0.82–0.98]. However, these religion-related variables were not associated with reduced risk of CHD morbidity and mortality. In fact, self-report of religiosity was associated with increased risk of this outcome in some models. In conclusion, although self-report measures of religiosity were not associated with reduced risk of CHD morbidity and mortality, these measures were associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality.     

Value priorities and preferences for a relationship partner

Despite extensive research into preferences for a romantic partner, previous work has not addressed the role of individual values in informing desires for a partner. The present study employed a recent comprehensive model of values [Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Beyond individualism-collectivism: new cultural dimensions of values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S-C. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: theory, method and application (pp. 81–119). Newbury Park, CA: Sage] to examine the role of values and sex, age and education in partner preferences. One hundred general population respondents from two British towns completed the Schwartz Value Survey and rated the desirability of 13 partner characteristics. Correlational analyses confirmed 12 of the 17 expected relationships between value scores and partner preferences whilst regressions conducted on three preference factors underlined the importance of the sex and education of the respondent in their rating of some partner ideals. We conclude by considering the need for future studies of partner preferences to combine the study of values with a range of demographic factors studied across a number of cultural settings.     

Contribution of the speech musculature to apparent human EEG asymmetries prior to vocalization

Vocalizations are preceded by slow EEG waves over inferior frontal scalp regions, but some controversy exists as to whether these slow potentials are left-lateralized as a function of speech. In this study both speech and non-speech vocalizations were studied, under conditions of repetitive and variable production. Averaged responses over the speech musculature, including the temporalis, masseter, orbicularis oris, and mylohyoid muscles, as well as the eyes and tongue, were calculated simultaneously with scalp EEG averages. The responses of the temporalis and masseter muscles, as well as that of the tongue, were correlated with EEG sites at specific latencies prior to speech, suggesting that no part of the inferior frontal EEG record was free from myogenic confounds. In addition, all significant EEG differences between speech and non-speech conditions were subsequently eliminated by covariance analysis, using selected muscle channels as covariates. Previous reports of asymmetrical “speech potentials” in the EEG probably reflected a combination of several myogenic confounds.     

The Laboratory Course in Psychology: I. Methods Employed for Ranking Stimuli

Dietary requirements of Southern Plains wood rats ih'cotoma micropus nticropus, Baird) were studied by Richter's self-selection of diet method. Nine of 16 adult wood rats fed an array of four purified or semipurified foodstuffs plus water slowly adjusted to the dietary arrangement and thrived thereafter. The other wood rats exhibited nonspecific rejection for all items until death. Subsequently, foodstuffs from the array were mixed in quantities proportional to the mean daily intake of each by the successful selectors during the final portion of the self-selection period. Successful selectors and an equal number of experimentally naive wood rats were fed the mash for nine weeks. Neither group differed significantly in weight at the end of the period from a control group fed a commercial chow     

Stress Management with Law Enforcement Personnel: A Controlled Outcome Study of EMDR Versus a Traditional Stress Management Program

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has been shown to be effective for treating posttraumatic stress disorder, but its efficacy as a stress management tool for normal individuals in highly stressful occupations has not been demonstrated. Sixty-two police officers were randomly assigned to either EMDR or a standard stress management program (SMP), each consisting of 6 hours of individualized contact. At completion, officers in the EMDR condition provided lower ratings on measures of PTSD symptoms, subjective distress, job stress, and anger; and higher marital satisfaction ratings than those in SMP. The effects of EMDR were maintained at the 6-month follow-up, indicating enduring gains from a relatively brief treatment regimen for this subclinical sample of officers who were experiencing some level of stress from their job.