Sex differences in emotional responses to "erotic literature."

32 males and 32 females read either a chapter from C. Willingham's Eternal Fire, an erotic and essentially exploitative passage, or a series of sections from Lady Chatterly's Lover which were modified to portray a clearly positive sexual experience for Lady Chatterly. Data from the Differential Emotions Scale and the Sexual Arousal Scale indicate that sex differences in response to erotic literature are complex and depend on the interpersonal as well as the erotic content of the passages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failure of "automatic access" in the Brown-Peterson paradigm.

In a study with 100 undergraduates, repeating a to-be-remembered item as part of the distraction task in a paradigm originally presented by J. Brown (1958) and L. R. Peterson and M. J. Peterson (1959) did not lead to recall superior to that obtained when such an item was not present during distraction. (French summary) (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Another example of a paradigm clash: A reply to Bixenstine's "criticisms."

Responds to V. E. Bixenstine's (1977) critique of W. W. Tryon's (see record 1977-04654-001) article on models of behavior disorder. The formal analysis paradigm from which Tryon operated is restated, and the way in which Bixenstine operated from the different phenomenology paradigm is demonstrated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on "A competence paradigm for psychological practice".

In response to F. Masterpasqua's (see record 1990-05261-001) criticism of rationalist/cognitivist views of mental health, the present author argues that rational-emotive therapy is probably more constructive than the constructivist-developmental theories of Masterpasqua. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Unconscious anxiety": Phobic responses to masked stimuli.

Tested the hypothesis that an unconscious preattentive perceptual analysis of phobic stimuli is sufficient to elicit human fear responses. Selected snake- and spider-fearful Ss, as well as normal controls, were exposed to pictures of snakes, spiders, flowers, and mushrooms. A separate forced-choice recognition experiment established backward masking conditions that effectively precluded recognition of experimental stimuli both for fearful and nonfearful Ss. In the main experiment, these conditions were used to compare skin conductance responses (SCRs) to masked and nonmasked phobic and control pictures among fearful and nonfearful Ss. In support of the hypotheses, snake- and spider-fearful Ss showed elevated SCRs to snake and spider pictures as compared with neutral pictures and with responses of the nonfearful Ss under both masking conditions. Ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance indicated that the fearful Ss felt more negative, more aroused, and less dominant in relation to both masked and nonmasked phobic stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A paradigm of infant-mother reciprocity: A reexamination of "emotional refueling."

Videotaped 7 mother–infant pairs to examine the impact of reunion episodes on the 10–12 mo old infant's expression of emotion and attention. Through pursuit of the mother, the infant regulated high and low levels of arousal before reunion to a more organized attentional and affective state after reunion. Four patterns of intentional reciprocity observed were vitalizing, soothing, mutual attunement, and protective. That an infant can use emerging cognitive awareness and locomotor capacities to cope with the difficulties of its experience reflects a new level of ego organization with implications for the development of internalization, defense, and psychological adaptation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The liberating effect on the analyst of the paradigm shift in psychoanalysis": Comment to Rabin.

Comments on H. M. Rabin's (see record 1996-15142-001) article that discusses, from an intersubjective perspective, a paradigm shift from a one-person to a two-person psychology experienced in psychoanalysis. Baker contends that although intersubjectivity theory, which has had a separate line of development from self psychology, does not see all idealizing statements as defenses against aggression, defensive idealization is specifically addressed by the concept of the defensive self ideal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desire, belief and grace: A psychotherapeutic paradigm.

Describes a method of focusing the purposes and goals of psychotherapy. In the process, the therapist must develop and reinforce the patient's belief in the moral and realistic possibilities of attaining these goals and must also substantiate the inculcation of a balanced perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Banks's "White preference in Blacks: A paradigm in search of a phenomenon."

A review by W. C. Banks (see record 1977-21037-001) concluded that the evaluative preference and self-identification responses of Afro-American children toward stimulus alternatives representing light- and dark-skinned persons conformed to simple chance rather than indicating a "White preference in Blacks." This interpretation is challenged as misleading because of Banks's dismissal of the importance of comparisons by race in the literature cited and because of his failure to cite a number of relevant studies of race and color bias, the results of which are inconsistent with his conclusion. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classically conditioned cardiac responses in "old" and "young" Fischer 344 rats.

Male and female Fischer 344 rats, 12 or 26–28 months of age, received two sessions of Pavlovian heart rate conditioning, and were compared with same-sex and same-age controls receiving unpaired presentations of the tone conditional stimulus (CS) and the shock unconditional stimulus (US). Older rats of both sexes demonstrated slower acquisition of the heart rate (HR), conditioned response (CR), and smaller magnitude changes than did the younger animals. Control experiments in 6-, 12-, 24-, and 30-month-old animals indicated that these differences were not due to an impaired sensitivity to the CS or US in the older animals. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for use of this animal model in investigations of age-related deficits in associative learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Addendum to "Consciousness."

The author extends his previous discussion (see record 1979-22877-001) to encompass the role of a concept of awareness in each of 7 ordinary concepts of consciousness: joint or mutual knowledge, internal knowledge or conviction, awareness, direct awareness, personal unity, normal waking state, and double consciousness. In each case, the crucial involvement of a certain concept of awareness is brought out and references are included of authors who have used similar scientific concepts that implicate the same concept of awareness. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A "humanistic alternative" to "Political ethics."

Challenges E. Gologor's (1978) contention that research concerning positive characteristics of people might be disruptive, as it could be discovered that people possess considerable potential for evil. A paradigm is presented that allows an objective evaluation of the effects of deception-disclosure on a given psychological phenomenon or procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The "so what" and "who cares" responses to Thorngate's problem: No one will read this anyway.

Comments on W. Thorngate's (see record 1991-03036-001) analysis of the overproduction of psychological literature, arguing that this problem may be a direct result of the institutional structures of psychology. The problem is viewed as the result of a basic concern about the nature of psychology, and efforts to address the problem will require changes in institutional structures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rejoinder to Robinson's "Ethics and advocacy."

Questions D. N. Robinson's (see record 1985-12952-001) argument that the American Psychological Association should not be an advocate for moral or ethical positions in important social issues because it lacks the appropriate moral authority. The present author stresses the importance of involvement in issues of social responsibilities and ethics and notes that such involvement has opened up new areas of investigation and sources of funding. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"In the beginning was the 'name' ": Response to Terrace.

Responds to H. S. Terrace's (see record 1986-11457-001) ideas about the development of naming behavior in children and apes. Data are presented that contradict Terrace's findings that nonhuman primates rarely approach anything close to human thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Doing violence to "…violence against women."

Suggests that neither the comments by M. E. Mills (1990) and D. E. Mould (see record 1990-22858-001) on L. E. A. Walker's (see record 1989-26311-001) article nor Walker's (1990) response spoke to the point so clearly identified by Walker's article. It is argued that the incidence of women's violence toward men is largely irrelevant to the study of violence against women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Making two responses to a single object: Implications for the central attentional bottleneck": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by C. Fagot and H. Pashler (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1992[Nov], Vol 18[4], 1058–2079). Figures 3 and 7 are in error. The corrected figures are presented. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1993-12299-001.) Experiments with 2 stimuli and 2 responses have revealed a central attentional bottleneck and pointed to response selection as its primary locus; however, little has been said about the underlying reasons for this bottleneck. These reasons are explored. In the 1st 3 experiments, Ss made 2 separate responses to different aspects of the same object. Interference between selection of the responses persisted, ruling out the possibility that the dual-task bottleneck is caused by the input to the response-selection mechanisms being limited to one object at a time. The next 4 experiments examined what happens when 2 responses are made to the same attribute of a single object. These experiments show that only one response selection occurred. Hence, the central mechanism is not limited to picking one motor action at a time. Several possible theories about the nature of the bottleneck are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond "competing," beyond "compatible." Commentary on J. Archer.

Comments on J. Archer's 1996 article in which he considers whether observed patterns of sex differences in human social behavior are best explained by social role theory or by the evolutionary principles of Darwinian theory. The author believes that Archer's conclusion that the 2 theories are actually compatible is important and is concerned that such a valuable conclusion may be lost to discussions over the rest of the article. The author argues several points made in the original article and then concludes that Darwinian and cultural perspectives on human sex differences are not opposing theories, nor are they merely compatible but instead are necessarily interdependent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling signal features of escape response: Effects of cessation conditioning in "learned helplessness" paradigm.

Six experiments examined the effects of signaling the termination of inescapable shock (cessation conditioning) or shock-free periods (backward conditioning) on later escape deficits in the learned helplessness paradigm, using rats (Sprague-Dawley and Bantin–Kingman). A cessation signal prevented later performance deficits when highly variable inescapable shock durations were used during pretreatment. The inclusion of short minimum intertrial intervals during pretreatment did not alter the benefits of cessation conditioning but eliminated the protection afforded by a safety signal. The beneficial effects of both cessation and backward signals were eliminated when a single stimulus signaled shock termination and a shock-free period. Finally, a combination of cessation and backward signals was found to be most effective in immunizing against the effects of subsequent unsignaled, inescapable shock on later escape performance. These data suggest that cessation conditioning may be crucial to the prophylactic action of an escape response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The "I," the "we," and the "when": A meta-analysis of motivational primacy in self-definition.

What is the primary motivational basis of self-definition? The authors meta-analytically assessed 3 hypotheses: (a) The individual self is motivationally primary, (b) the collective self is motivationally primary, and (c) neither self is inherently primary; instead, motivational primacy depends on which self becomes accessible through contextual features. Results identified the individual self as the primary motivational basis of self definition. People react more strongly to threat and enhancement of the individual than the collective self. Additionally, people more readily deny threatening information and more readily accept enhancing information when it pertains to the individual rather than the collective self, regardless of contextual influences. The individual self is the psychological home base, a stable system that can react flexibly to contextual influences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)