Norman Stein

Mastery, stress, and coping in marriage among chronic pain patients

Marital stress, strain, and coping strategies were investigated in chronic pain patients by administering the Problems of Everyday Life Interview (PEL) to 55 married chronic pain patients. Subjects were assigned to either limited, moderate, or heightened mastery groups based upon PEL mastery scores. The heightened mastery group reported less marital strain, less marital stress, more use of negotiation, less use of selective ignoring, and less use of manage-stress coping strategies than either limited mastery or moderate mastery groups. There were no significant differences between limited mastery and moderate mastery groups on any variables measured. There were no differences between mastery groups on advice seeking. The effects of mastery as a mediator of coping and stress are discussed, as well as the advisability of incorporating treatments that specifically address feelings of lack of control over stressful events into chronic pain programs, especially when marital problems are identified.

Fading Procedures and Oddity Learning in Kindergarten Children.

Abstract The effectiveness of three fading and two nonfading procedures were compared in training kindergarten children on an oddity problem in which shape was the relevant dimension. The fading procedures employed supplementary cues which were gradually eliminated during training. The cues included either saturating the odd stimulus with a red color, saturating the nonodd stimuli with a red color, or varying the degree of illumination of the nonodd stimuli. One nonfading group received training on a structurally simpler oddity problem prior to transfer to a more complex oddity problem, and a second nonfading group received the standard oddity training procedure. While significant differences in acquisition were not obtained between training groups, the oddity task performance and the results from a test of dimensional observation revealed that the fading procedures were differentially effective in transferring S s′ observation from the dimension of the fading cue to that relevant for solution of the oddity problem.

Depression and the Wish to be Held.

The relation between aspects of depression and the wish to be held was studied in 72 male and 57 female college students. Females reported higher levels of depressive experiences associated with issues of dependency as well as more intense wishes to be held. In both sexes the intensity of the wish to be held was related to dependency; however, it was the correlations of these variables with level of depression that revealed differences between males and females. In males, the wish to be held covaried positively with the overall level of depression, Whereas in females it remained invariant across levels of depression. Thus, males who describe themselves as more depressed, relative to other males, expressed more feelings associated with dependency and more intense wishes to be held.

Experiences of Depression and Illness Behavior in Patients with Intractable Chronic Pain.

Studied the relationships between depth of depression, anaclitic and introjective depressive experiences, and dimensions of illness behavior in 37 chronic pain patients. Depth of depression and degree of introjective depressive experiences showed similar positive covariation with a broad range of illness behavior: Namely, hypochondriasis, disease conviction, affective inhibition, affective disturbance, and irritability. The findings suggest that depression characterized by feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and self-doubt, rather than themes of abandonment, is associated differentially with disturbances in the illness behavior of chronic pain patients.

EFFECTS OF AGE AND COLLATERAL BEHAVIOR ON TEMPORALLY DISCRIMINATED PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN

28 5- and 7-yr.-old children were reinforced for key pressing according to a DRL (differential reinforcement of low rates) 5-sec. schedule of reinforcement. For half of the subjects in each age group collateral keys were accessible for use during resting. Results indicated that the 5-yr.-old children acquired significantly fewer reinforcements, were less efficient, and developed less precise temporal discriminations than the 7-yr.-old children. Use of collateral keypressing was more important in moderating DRL performance in 5-yr.-old children than in 7-yr.-olds. Differences were also found in the manner in which the two age groups mediated temporally spaced responses when no programmed opportunities for collateral keypressing were provided.

Predictability, controllability, and inoculation against learned helplessness

Abstract Nondepressed human subjects were divided into seven groups. On a series of discrimination problems, a helplessness group received insoluble problems, a solvable group received contingent feedback, and a no treatment control group received no feedback. For two other groups insoluble problems were preceded by success feedback on a different task presented according to a fixed ratio (FR) or variable ratio (VR) schedule of reinforcement. Two control groups received either FR or VR schedules of success but were not examined on the discrimination problems. All groups were tested for escape/avoidance performance on a human shuttle box. Both FR and VR schedules produced an inoculation against learned helplessness; escape performance by the helplessness group was significantly worse than that of FR and VR inoculation groups. These latter groups performed similar to the solvable and three control groups. Significantly worse than that of FR and VR inoculation groups. These latter groups performed similar to the solvable and three control groups. Significantly fewer subjects in the VR inoculation group exhibited avoidance responses than their counterparts in the FR inoculation group. despite similar escape performance. The findings indicate that learned helplessness can be prevented in humans and suggest different sources of interference produced by unpredictable and uncontrollable events.

Anti-Social Behavior

Aim of this lesson To think about the term anti social behaviour. What sort of behaviour can be considered as anti social and what impact can this have on the people and places around us. Learning objective By the end of this lesson pupils should understand what is meant by the term anti social behaviour and what sort of behaviours can be included within its meaning. Pupils should also understand that there is not a clear distinction between antisocial behaviour and crime, as one can often be a precursor to the other.

Differential reinforcement of low rates performance by impulsive and reflective children

Third-grade boys classified as either cognitively impulsive or reflective were reinforced for key pressing according to a DRL (differential reinforcement of low rates) 6-sec schedule of reinforcement. Half of each group received instructions about the behavioral requirements for obtaining reinforcements. Prior to DRL training, impulsive Ss showed a low probability of key press responding at long interresponse time (IRT) intervals while reflective Ss exhibited an equal probability of terminating either short or long IRTs. During training and in the absence of instructions, impulsives exhibited a less precise temporal discrimination, characterized by a greater predominance of response bursts (0–2 sec IRTs) following reinforcements, than reflective Ss. While impulsive and reflective Ss displayed similar frequencies of collateral behavior between successively reinforced responses, impulsives engaged in the reinforced response more frequently and tended (p < .08) to obtain fewer reinforcements. Instructions served to enhance the DRL performance.

Discrimination learning and stimulus generalization by impulsive and reflective children.

Abstract The proposition that impulsive children inhibit expressive behavior less than reflective children was investigated by providing third grade impulsive and reflective boys with either differential or nondifferential forms or successive discrimination training prior to tests for stimulus generalization. Consistent with specific predictions derived from Spences theory on the roles of excitation and inhibition, it was found that: (a) Reflectives acquired the discrimination more rapidly, (b) reflectives achieved a higher level of discriminative performance, (c) impulsives exhibited more variable response reates during the nonreinforced stimulus, and (d) the type of training interacted with the childs conceptual tempo to determine the elevation and shape of the post-discrimination generalization gradients. The results provide support for the construct validity of the Matching Familiar Figures Test of reflectivity-impulsivity.

Human DRL performance, collateral behavior, and verbalization of the reinforcement contingency

Adult human Ss, reinforced for keypressing on a DRL 5-sec schedule of reinforcement, regularly verbalized hypotheses about the behavioral requirements necessary for obtaining reinforcement. High frequencies of overt collateral behavior accompanied response-based hypotheses and low or absent rates of overt collateral behavior accompanied time-based hypotheses. The findings support the conclusion that overt collateral responding can be functionally equivalent to mediative counting during temporally spaced responding.