CHILD-REARING BELIEFS WITHIN DIVERSE SOCIAL STRUCTURES: MOTHERS AND DAY-CARE PROVIDERS IN MEXICO*

The child-rearing beliefs of 32 mothers and 36 day-care providers in Mexico were compared. Day-care providers expected children to master developmental skills at an earlier age than did mothers. Day-care providers more strongly valued the development of independent and cooperative behavior, and placed less importance on obedience. They also reported employing more flexible and nonauthoritarian discipline strategies than did mothers. Mothers and caregivers did not differ in the extent to which they attributed the success of their discipline strategies to their own actions rather than to external factors. Also examined was how mothers' beliefs differed in families characterized by interdependent versus individualistic social structures. In interdependent families, mothers were more likely to believe in later mastery of developmental skills and to make external attributions. These findings suggest that Mexican children experience incongruous social norms as they move between home and day care settings, and that these norms, at least within the home, are associated with the social structural features of the setting.     

The relation of gender-role orientation to sexual experience among college students

This study examined the relations of gender and three aspects of gender roles — self concept, behavior, and sexual attitudes — to three aspects of sexual behavior — sexual experience, reasons for intercourse, and contraceptive use. Gender was strongly related to all three aspects of sexual behavior. For both men and women, sex role behaviors were related to sexual experience and to reasons for intercourse, but not to contraceptive use, and sex role self-concept was unrelated to any of the aspects of sexual behavior. The results indicate that sexual behavior is influenced both by societal gender role norms and by individual differences in the acceptance of those norms.     

Signalling and incentive processes in instrumental reinforcer devaluation

We have previously reported that conditioning an aversion to the reinforcer using an isotonic lithium chloride (LiCl) solution following instrumental training reduces performance in a subsequent extinction test only if animals are re-exposed to the reinforcer prior to the test. Rescorla (1992), in contrast, reported an immediate devaluation effect using a hypertonic LiCl solution that did not depend upon re-exposure. In two experiments we examined the effect of using a hypertonic LiCl solution to condition the aversion to the reinforcer on subsequent instrumental performance in extinction, with and without re-exposure. In Experiment 1 thirsty rats were trained to press a lever for a sucrose solution before being injected with 0.6 M LiCl either immediately or after a delay. Half of the immediate and delay groups were then re-exposed to the sucrose in the absence of the lever, with the remainder being exposed to water. Contrary to the previously reported effects of isotonic LiCl, a hypertonic solution induced a reinforcer devaluation effect in all the immediately poisoned animals, which did not depend upon re-exposure to the reinforcer. In Experiment 2 the possibility that this devaluation effect was induced by the discomfort associated with the hypertonicity of the solution was assessed by replicating Experiment 1 but, in addition, using two immediately poisoned groups given the LiCl injection under anaesthesia. In the absence of anaesthesia, the devaluation effect observed without re-exposure to the reinforcer in Experiment 1 was replicated. When the injection was given under anaesthesia, however, a reinforcer devaluation effect was observed only in animals that were re-exposed to the reinforcer prior to the extinction test. These results were interpreted as evidence that a reinforcer devaluation effect induced by pairing the reinforcer with illness depends upon a process of incentive learning, whereas a devaluation effect mediated by learning a signalling relationship between the reinforcer and somatic discomfort does not.     

Midline and off-midline tongue and right- and left-hand vibrotactile thresholds of stutterers and normal-speaking individuals

Vibrotactile thresholds for 7 male stutterers and 7 normal-speaking men (age range for both groups = 19 to 32 yr.) were obtained from the right, midline, and left sides of the lingual dorsum, and the thenar eminences of both hands. The stutterers showed slightly higher (less sensitive) mean thresholds than the normal speakers for all three lingual test sites. This was not the case for the thresholds obtained from both hands. The preliminary data suggest that oral peripheral sensory integrity might be somewhat different for stutterers than for normal-speaking individuals.     

Replies to Wallace,Queloz, and Kirwin

In this article, I reply to the comments offered by R. Jay Wallace, Matthieu Queloz, and Claire Kirwin on my book, The Will to Nothingness. An Essay on Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality (OUP, 2021). These comments and my replies cover central features of the book, including my analysis of ressentiment as an expression of the will to power; the concept of self-undermining functionality I introduce to make sense of Nietzsche's critique of the ascetic ideal; and my reasons for omitting to examine the “unconditional will to truth,” which he presents as the latest embodiment of this ideal.