The relation between social support, infant risk status and mother–infant interaction.

The purpose of this study was to describe the nature of the social support network of mothers from inner-city, poor families with high-risk infants and to examine the relation between mother's social support network and maternal behavior. When their infants were 3 months of age, mothers were interviewed concerning sources of support (e.g., fathers, relatives, and friends) and type of support received (i.e., goods, services, advice, and financial support). Observations of the mother–infant interaction in a free-play setting were also obtained. Results revealed that goods was the type of support most frequently mentioned, and relatives were mentioned as giving support more often than friends. Mothers of premature infants reported fewer people giving goods than mothers of term infants. The results of this study also indicated that source and type of support to mother were important factors for understanding maternal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Engaging strangers in proximal interaction: Infants' social initiative.

Observed 72 infants aged 12, 18, and 24 mo in the presence of their mothers and 2 adult female strangers to assess their willingness to initiate proximal interaction (PI) with unfamiliar adults. Mothers and strangers were asked to be warmly responsive to infant overtures but not to invite interaction from the infant. A majority of the infants at the 3 ages initiated PI with one or both strangers, often repeatedly. For those who engaged in 2 or more PI bouts with the strangers, a significant upward trend in bout duration and intensity was noted. Older infants gave more toys to the strangers and initiated more mutual play. Stranger–mother distance affected amount of proximity, not PI. Mother–stranger conversation was associated with less PI with the conversing stranger. At all ages infants sought more PI with their mothers than with the strangers. Although infants initiated an appreciable amount of PI with the strangers during the 40-min observation, comparison with other studies indicates that a stranger who takes the initiative by inviting play can establish more rapport much sooner. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marriage and the spiritual realm: The role of proximal and distal religious constructs in marital functioning.

Ninety-seven couples completed questionnaires about their involvement in joint religious activities and their perceptions regarding the sanctification of marriage, including perceived sacred qualities of marriage and beliefs about the manifestation of God in marriage. In contrast to individual religiousness and religious homogamy (distal religious constructs), these proximal religious variables directly reflect an integration of religion and marriage, and they were associated with greater global marital adjustment, more perceived benefits from marriage, less marital conflict, more verbal collaboration, and less use of verbal aggression and stalemate to discuss disagreements for both wives and husbands. The proximal measures also added substantial unique variance (adjusted R2 change ranged from .06 to .48) to specific aspects of marital functioning after controlling demographic factors and distal religious variables in hierarchical regression analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An infant case of bilateral small kidneys with both proximal and distal tubular dysfunction

PURPOSE: To assess the safety and efficacy of 37.5 mg ephedrine i.m. in preventing hypotension associated with spinal anaesthesia for Caesarean section. METHODS: In a double-blind randomised controlled study, 40 patients (20 in each group) were given either 37.5 mg ephedrine or placebo i.m. The following parameters were recorded: (i) blood pressure; (ii) heart rate; (iii) ephedrine i.v. supplementation; (iv) umbilical venous blood gases and neonatal Apgar scores. RESULTS: The incidence of hypertension in the study group was 30% compared with 20% for the control group (P:NS). There was no difference in mean highest blood pressure or mean highest heart rate between the groups. The incidence of hypotension was lower but not significantly lower in the study group (50%) than in the control group (80%) (P:NS). However, the incidence of delayed hypotension was only 10% in the study group patients compared with 50% in the control group patients (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Giving 37.5 mg ephedrine i.m. prior to spinal anaesthesia was not associated with reactive hypertension or tachycardia. Intramuscular ephedrine provided more sustained cardiovascular support than intravenous ephedrine.     

The stability of social interaction.

In a study of the stability of social interaction, 78 Ss (aged 17–29 yrs) maintained a social interaction diary, the Rochester Interaction Record (RIR), for 4 1-wk periods during their freshman year at college. Stability was operationalized in 3 ways: (1) absolutely, in terms of the similarity across the 4 periods of amount of interaction and of reactions to interactions; (2) relatively, in terms of correlations between interaction measures taken at different times; and (3) in terms of the stability of social networks, defined as the consistency across time of participants' close friends. Social interaction was found to be more stable over shorter periods of time than over longer periods, and stability increased over time. In addition, opposite-sex social interaction was less stable than same-sex interaction, and this was particularly true for interactions with close friends. The present results are interpreted by considering social environments as social systems with an emphasis on the importance of social norms as mediators of social interaction (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social psychological basis for public acceptance of the social security system: The role for social research in public policy formation.

Examined the issue of carrying out research that meets traditional standards of quality while bearing upon significant public issues. Measures of orientation toward socal security were studied, using an opinion questionnaire administered in 615 home interviews in 3 cities. Results indicate that people are committed to social security because it is work-connected through the payroll tax. There is no dissatisfaction with the system by persons who appear to bear the brunt of its inequities. Factors related to willingness to pay into the system are noted. The question of why there has been no previous social psychological research on the social security program is considered, and ways of coping with this lack are suggested. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of modeling and role playing to increase social interaction among asocial psychiatric patients.

Studied 87 psychiatric inpatients, all of whom consistently displayed minimal social interaction behavior, in a 2 * 2 * 2 covariance design involving 3 treatment variables. The major variable was presence vs absence of structured learning therapy (modeling plus role playing plus social reinforcement) aimed at increasing social interaction behavior. Presence vs absence of psychotherapy and patient status (acute-chronic) were also examined. Several significant main and interaction effects emerged on social interaction criteria for structured learning therapy. Interaction effects for structured learning therapy and psychotherapy suggested primarily a "mutual inhibition" of treatment effectiveness. Implications for further studies of structured learning therapy and specific skill enhancement are examined. (34 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual preference, sex role appropriateness, and restriction of social access

This study related components of gender inappropriateness that isolate target persons from sources of reward and hence function as social controls against such deviance. The study confirmed that a significant portion of negative responsiveness toward homosexuals results from the belief that their behavior is incongruent with their anatomical sex. Further, it was found that people are tolerant of out-of-sex-role characteristics when such traits are irrelevant to effective functioning in the situation, as long as the target does not display additional gender incongruence, namely, homosexuality. The results did not support the hypothesis that negative reactions to gender incongruence occur as a function of personal threat to one's own sexual identity.     

Analysis of social interaction: Actual, role playing, and projective.

The differences and relationships among responses of subjects as expressed in three types of situations, identified simply as actual, role playing, and pencil and paper projective test are investigated by the factor analysis of Bales' set of behavioral categories for Interaction Process Analysis, and the examination of these categories in terms of external criteria. A major conclusion is that great caution must be observed in predicting from verbal behavior to actual or role playing situations; however, role playing appears to give the same kinds of information that are available from interaction in actual situations as defined in this study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Referencing and bias in social interaction.

Examined the consequences of schematic referencing for social behavior. In Exp I, 23 female and 21 male undergraduates worked in pairs on a word association task. In the self-referencing condition, Ss were told that their partner would judge their personality; in the other-referencing condition, Ss were asked to judge their partner's personality. Results show biased recall of Ss' own behavior over another person's behavior in a dyadic interaction. Exp II employed an alternative, more realistic manipulation of self-referencing using situational cues. 16 pairs of undergraduate Ss performed the same word association task either in front of judges or by themselves. The biased recall effect was replicated. Moreover, corresponding biases in Ss' attributions about the quality of their performance were found. Results confirm that self-referencing cues can cause the sort of egocentric reactions that have been observed in previous studies in which members of an interaction remember more of their own contributions and attribute more responsibility for joint tasks to themselves. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of structure in infant visual pattern perception.

In Exp 1, 15 infants (aged 4 mo 2 days to 5 mo 9 days) were presented with a symmetrical (SYP) and an asymmetrical pattern (ASP), using a paired comparison preference technique. The SYPs represented vertical, horizontal, 2-fold, and 4-fold symmetry (SYM). 15 infants (aged 3 mo 29 days, to 5 mo 16 days) in Exp 2 additionally viewed patterns with 8-fold SYM, using the same procedure as Exp 1. Ss preferred patterns with multiple axes of bilateral SYM relative to ASPs. Also, vertically oriented single axis bilateral SYM was more salient than horizontally oriented SYM. The perception of structure appears to be basic to the functioning of the visual system. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The mechanism of bicarbonate reabsorption in the proximal and distal tubules of the kidney. 1965

The mechanism of HCO3- reabsorption in proximal and distal tubules was examined in rats undergoing NaHCO3 diuresis. The steady-state intratubular pH was measured with pH-sensitive glass microelectrodes and compared with the equilibrium pH calculated from the HCO3- concentration of the tubular fluid (measured with quinhydrone electrodes) and plasma Pco2. In the proximal tubule the intratubular pH and the equilibrium pH were identical, indicating no accumulation of excess H2CO3. After inhibition of carbonic anhydrase, however, intratubular pH was significantly lower (0.85 pH U) than the equilibrium pH. It was concluded that HCO3- reabsorption in the proximal tubule was mediated by H+ secretion, but that carbonic anhydrase located in the luminal membrane of the cell prevented H2CO3 from accumulating in the tubular fluid. In the distal tubule the intratubular pH was 0.85 U lower than the equilibrium pH. This difference could be obliterated by an intravenous injection of carbonic anhydrase. It was concluded that HCO3- reabsorption in this segment was also accomplished by H+ secretion. The accumulation of excess H2CO3 in the tubular fluid indicated that, in contrast to the proximal tubule, carbonic anhydrase was not located in the luminal membrane of distal tubular cells.     

Variation of early social experience and environmental preference in rats.

32 male Long-Evans rats were raised from the time of weaning either as isolates or in groups. Physical environments consisted of horizontally or vertically striped cage walls. After 15 days Ss were tested for preference of the familiar or a novel environment. The hypothesis that isolates would prefer the familiar physical environment and grouped Ss would prefer the novel physical environment was confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication within infant social games.

This study explored the growing capability of children, 9 to 18 months of age, to request a partner's participation in social games. Nineteen infants played a set of prescribed games for 30 min in a laboratory setting with an adult partner when they were 9, 12, 15, and 18 months of age. The children's nonverbal behavior and vocalizations during 15-s intervals in which the adult partner discontinued her involvement in the game (interruption periods) were compared with their behavior during game-playing periods. A reliable increase in communicative behavior was displayed during the interruption periods. Behavior during the interruption periods indicated that infants as young as 9 months understood elements of the content and structure of the games, were capable of engaging in object–person interaction, and were able to regulate the games by requesting that their partners continue to participate. The display of this knowledge and skill became more frequent and reliable with increasing age. The results are discussed with reference to the effect of adult scaffolding on infants' use of communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal separation alters social odor preference development in infant mice (Mus musculus).

This study examined whether daily periods of maternal separation during the first two weeks of life would decrease attraction to familiar nest odors in CD-1 mice 10 and 14 days old. We also investigated whether placing a group of mice (Mus musculus) in nest shavings during the 180-min separation period would mitigate possible separation-induced deficits. The maternal separation procedure has been widely used as a rodent model for the effects of inconsistent or inadequate early caretaking on human development. From postnatal day (PND) 1 to 14, litters were separated from the dam, but not littermates for either 15 or 180 min, or were facility-reared controls. Control, facility-reared mice preferred home-cage nest to clean familiar shaving odors on PND 10, but not PND 14. In contrast, home-cage nest odors attracted maternally separated mice on both test days. Our results suggest that maternal separation maintains the olfactory tether to the nest in a period when the attraction normally begins to weaken. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypothesis-testing processes in social interaction.

In 4 separate investigations, female undergraduates were provided with hypotheses about the personal attributes of other individuals (targets). Ss then prepared to test these hypotheses (i.e., that their targets were extraverts or that their targets were introverts) by choosing a series of questions to ask their targets in a forthcoming interview. In each investigation, Ss planned to test these hypotheses by preferentially searching for behavioral evidence that would confirm the hypotheses. Moveover, these search procedures channeled social interaction between Ss and targets in ways that caused the targets to provide actual behavioral confirmation for Ss' hypotheses. A theoretical analysis of the psychological processes believed to underlie and generate both the preferential search for hypothesis-confirming behavioral evidence and the interpersonal consequences of hypothesis-testing activities is presented. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical attractiveness in social interaction.

A journal-style record was used to construct several indices characterizing the socializing among 35 male (M) and 36 female (F) undergraduates. These variables were then related to Ss' independently rated physical attractiveness. The following major results were obtained: (a) Physical attractiveness was strongly related to the quantity of social interaction for Ms, positively with the opposite sex and negatively with the same sex; no significant pattern emerged for Fs. (b) For both sexes, particularly with opposite-sex interactions, satisfaction showed an increasing tendency over time to be positively correlated with attractiveness. (c) Fs with more variable attractiveness ratings were more likely to be satisfied with their socializing. (d) Physically attractive Ms tended to have more mutually initiated and fewer self- or other-initiated interactions with the opposite sex. (e) Attractive Ms spent more of their interactions conversing and less in activities; attractive Fs also reported a lesser proportion of task interactions and more prevalent dates/parties. Mediating mechanisms for these effects, notably including people's stereotypic beliefs about physical attractiveness, are also discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detecting cyclicity in social interaction.

Reviews spectral and cross-spectral analytic methods for detecting cyclicity, cross-cyclicity, and lead–lag relationships in continuous data derived from the observation of dyadic interaction. It is found that lead–lag relationships can be assessed using the phase spectrum. Spectral analytic methods are then generalized to categorical observational data (taken from a study by the author and his associates; see record 1978-20895-001). It is shown that by these methods one can derive the classical information theory definition of social communication and its distribution statistics. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and everyday social interaction.

Examined the relationships between depressive symptoms and everyday social interaction in a nonclinical population. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and social interaction was measured using a variant of the Rochester Interaction Record. People who were classified as at risk for depression had less rewarding interactions than people who were not at risk. Depressive symptoms and interaction quantity and quality were negatively correlated for participants above the cutpoint, whereas they were uncorrelated for those below the at-risk cutpoint. Results also suggest that, compared with nondepressed people, depressed people derive more rewards from interactions with their closest opposite-sex friends, relative to the rewards they derive from interactions with other opposite-sex friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)