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PubMed2003

Intergroup conflict: individual, group, and collective interests.

Intergroup conflicts generally involve conflicts of interests within the competing groups as well. This article outlines a taxonomy of games, called team games, which incorporates the intragroup and intergroup levels of conflict. Its aims are to provide a coherent framework for analyzing the prototypical problems of cooperation and competition that arise within and between groups, and to review an extensive research program that has used this framework to study individual and group behavior in the laboratory. Depending on the game's payoff structure, contradictions or conflicts are created among the rational choices at the individual, group, and collective levels-a generalization of the contradiction between individual and collective rationality occurring in the traditional mixed-motive games. These contradictions are studied so as to identify the theoretical and behavioral conditions that determine which level of rationality prevails.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed1992

Selective sensitivity of schedule-induced activity to an operant suppression contingency.

The sensitivity of pigeons' schedule-induced activity to operant consequences was studied in two experiments. During a 30-s interval between food presentations, a keylight stimulus brightened incrementally. Stable terminal key pecking and interim locomotor activity developed. An operant "setback" contingency was applied to activity. The contingency arranged for locomotor movements (detected by a nine-panel floorboard) to be followed by a resetting of the keylight brightness to a dimmer value and a 1-s delay of reinforcement (for individual responses). Experiment 1 showed that activity patterns were highly sensitive to their operant consequences. Accompanying key-peck rates were only transiently affected. In Experiment 2, the setback contingency was imposed during restricted portions of the trial, and differential operant control of activity was demonstrated. However, birds in this study produced higher rates of key pecking as activity rates were reduced. These results suggest that although schedule-induced activity arises in response to the temporal arrangement of stimulus events, this behavior may retain considerable sensitivity to response-consequence relations.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Human mate guarding.

Long-term committed mating is a fundamental strategy in the human repertoire. Successful enactment of this strategy requires solving two related adaptive problems--fending off potential mate poachers and preventing a mates from defecting. Mate guarding adaptations evolved to solve these persistent problems. Those who failed in mate guarding risked suffering substantial reproductive costs ranging from genetic cuckoldry to reputational damage to the entire loss of a mate. Because the precise nature of the adaptive problems confronted differed historically for the sexes, men and women evolved corresponding differences in the underlying psychology of mate guarding. Men's mate guarding, relative to that of women's, is strongly triggered as a consequence of being mated to young and physically attractive women, being confronted by interested rivals who have superior economic resources or prospects, and having a mate who displays signs of sexual involvement with a rival. Women's mate guarding, relative to that of men's, is triggered as a consequence of being mated to men high in income and status striving, rivals who are more physically attractive, and having a partner who shows signs of emotional involvement with another woman. Behavioral output of mate guarding adaptations range from vigilance to violence.

Behavior Control↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The characteristics of the intragroup behavior of rhesus macaques and hamadryas baboons during the realization of food motivation in a competitive situation].

The aim of the present work is to consider the specific interrelations in "family" units of macaques (Macaca mulatta) and baboons (Papio hamadryas) during food-getting reactions in competitive conditions. Detailed analysis of dyadic interactions revealed that competing partners demonstrate more various types of behaviour tactics at the initial stage of learning. At the final one, only males of both investigated species performed instrumental reactions and received the food reward. All females demonstrated much more vocal reactions in comparison with males. Thus the variety of competing interactions between heterosexual partners, learning and possibility to realize its motivation correspond ro novelty of experimental situation and degree of intraspecies social subordination.

Animals↗
PubMed1972

Effects of cingulate cortex lesions on emotional behavior and delayed responses in cats.

Bilateral thermocoagulation of the cingulate gyri produced an abolishment of fear reactions concomitantly with an exaggerated aggressiveness and a drastic impairment of delayed responses. The changes in emotionality subsided after several months but there was no recovery, even after prolonged post-operative training, of the dalayed responses with a 5 min delay. Only partial improvement of the responses with shorter delays (10 sec and 1 min) was observed. This memory deficit is discussed in terms of disruption of neuronal limbic circuits necessary for maintaining the impulse reverberation.

Aggression↗
PubMed1997

A longitudinal study of the attitudes of the medical profession towards competition and advertising.

AIMS: To measure changes in the attitudes of medical practitioners toward the move from a collegial to a more competitive orientation of the medical profession and, in particular, toward the role of advertising. METHOD: In the years 1985, 1988 and 1994, self-completion questionnaires were mailed to samples of medical practitioners. The questionnaires for each year were identical, containing forty Likert scales with questions relating to advertising, competition and commercial behaviour. Similar data were also gathered from members of the dental, veterinary, legal and accounting professions. RESULTS: Over the three studies there has been an undramatic but steady movement towards acceptance of a competitive orientation in general and towards acceptance of informative advertising in particular. There remains substantial reservation towards the use of persuasive advertising. Although patients are viewed as being more demanding than in past times, practitioners still expect their relationships with patients to be long lasting. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that acceptance of the move towards a more competitively oriented profession will continue. The results also suggest that in view of the kinds of advertising that are now used by medical practices, and of the change in attitudes that has occurred, control of advertising might cease to be a concern to the profession.

Advertising↗
PubMed1989

How do people choose their doctor?

The white paper Working for Patients assumes that patients choose general practitioners on the basis of the service that they provide and that increased competition among doctors will raise standards. To investigate these assumptions a postal questionnaire survey was carried out of 447 people who had recently registered with a new general practitioner. The results disclosed a remarkable lack of consumerist behaviour. Most people registered with their nearest doctor, and many did not register until they were already ill. Many people knew nothing about their new practice but seemed unworried by this and showed little inclination to seek information. These findings suggest that competition among general practitioners is unlikely in itself to raise standards of care.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1993

Behavioral pharmacology of NPC 17742, a competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist.

The behavioral effects of the competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist 2R,4R,5S-2-amino-4,5-(1,2-cyclohexyl)-7-phosphonoheptanoate (NPC 17742) were compared with those of its parent compound, 2-amino-4,5-(1,2-cyclohexyl)-7-phosphonoheptanoate (NPC 12626), and other reference agents in a variety of operant-based tasks in rodents. In mice trained to lever press under a fixed-ratio (FR) 20 reinforcement schedule, NPC 17742 was 6.2 times more potent than NPC 12626 and equipotent with the competitive NMDA antagonist [E]-2-amino-4-methyl-5-phosphono-3-penteneoic acid (CGP 37849) in reducing rates of responding. NPC 17742 was also 3.5 and 4.5 times more potent than [+-]cis-4-phosphonomethyl-2-piperidine carboxylate (CGS 19755) and [+-] 3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)propyl-1-phosphonate (CPP), respectively, and half as potent as 3SR, 4aRS, 6SR, 8aRS-6-(phosphonomethyl)-1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,7,8,8a- decahydroisoquinoline-3-carboxylate (LY 274614) in this paradigm. In rats trained to discriminate 4.0 mg/kg NPC 17742 from saline, NPC 17742 was 5.7 times more potent than NPC 12626 in substituting for NPC 17742. CGS 19755 also substituted for NPC 17742, but a maximum of only 50% NPC 17742 lever responding was observed after LY 274614 administration. In rats trained to lever press in a modified Geller-Seifter procedure, NPC 17742 and NPC 12626, like the benzodiazepine chlordiazepoxide, increased rates of punished responding. Neither tolerance nor sensitization to the anti-punishment effects were observed upon administration of NPC 17742 for 5 consecutive days. The results are consistent with NPC 17742 being a potent, systemically active compound whose behavioral effects are mediated through interaction with the NMDA receptor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate↗
PubMed1983

Stability of overt Type A behaviors in children: results from a one-year longitudinal study.

This paper describes the degree of similarity between repeated ratings (taken 1 year apart) of overt Type A behaviors in 2 samples totaling 633 children. The measure of overt Type A behaviors was the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH), which was completed by the children's classroom teacher. Results showed that correlations between repeated MYTH ratings approximated .55 and in general increased somewhat with the children's school grade, although correlations between repeated ratings of competitive achievement behaviors of boys residing in an affluent eastern suburb were somewhat lower than above. The degree of similarity across 1 year in children's Type A behaviors is comparable to that found for adult Type A behaviors and for other cardiovascular risk factors in children. The discussion includes a consideration of assumptions underlying research on the origins of Type A behavior and suggests that etiological factors in the development of Type A might profitably be studied in primary school-aged children.

Achievement↗
PubMed1980

A comparative study of competitive and social reinforcement models of interview behavior.

While psychotherapy typically is conceptualized as a social reinforcement process, Haley suggests that most interview behavior is predicted better by a competitive model of social interaction. Davis (1971) compared the two models by having interviewers follow reinforcing or competitive response programs and comparing the frequencies with which interviewees initiated interactions under the contrasting conditions. His results suggested that the competitive model predicted interviewee behavior more accurately. This study attempted both to replicate Davis' work with a different S sample (N = 48) (psychiatric inpatients as opposed to college students) and to extend it by using both male and female interviewers. Few of Davis' findings were replicated. Message frequency requests were equal in the competitive and reinforcing conditions, both of which induced more requests than a mixed interviewer program. The interactions that Davis had found between interviewer programs and Ss' classification on the repression-sensitization dimension were not significant. It is suggested that Davis' results may be limited to his college student sample and apparently do not generalize to those individuals more likely to be involved in therapeutic interviews.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Punishment in human choice: direct or competitive suppression?

This investigation compared the predictions of two models describing the integration of reinforcement and punishment effects in operant choice. Deluty's (1976) competitive-suppression model (conceptually related to two-factor punishment theories) and de Villiers' (1980) direct-suppression model (conceptually related to one-factor punishment theories) have been tested previously in nonhumans but not at the individual level in humans. Mouse clicking by college students was maintained in a two-alternative concurrent schedule of variable-interval money reinforcement. Punishment consisted of variable-interval money losses. Experiment 1 verified that money loss was an effective punisher in this context. Experiment 2 consisted of qualitative model comparisons similar to those used in previous studies involving nonhumans. Following a no-punishment baseline, punishment was superimposed upon both response alternatives. Under schedule values for which the direct-suppression model, but not the competitive-suppression model, predicted distinct shifts from baseline performance, or vice versa, 12 of 14 individual-subject functions, generated by 7 subjects, supported the direct-suppression model. When the punishment models were converted to the form of the generalized matching law, least-squares linear regression fits for a direct-suppression model were superior to those of a competitive-suppression model for 6 of 7 subjects. In Experiment 3, a more thorough quantitative test of the modified models, fits for a direct-suppression model were superior in 11 of 13 cases. These results correspond well to those of investigations conducted with nonhumans and provide the first individual-subject evidence that a direct-suppression model, evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively, describes human punishment better than a competitive-suppression model. We discuss implications for developing better punishment models and future investigations of punishment in human choice.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed1988

Sexual selection and canine dimorphism in New World monkeys.

Social and ecological factors are important in shaping sexual dimorphism in Anthropoidea, but there is also a tendency for body-size dimorphism and canine dimorphism to increase with increased body size (Rensch's rule) (Rensch: Evolution Above the Species Level. London: Methuen, 1959.) Most ecologist interpret Rensch's rule to be a consequence of social and ecological selective factors that covary with body size, but recent claims have been advanced that dimorphism is principally a consequence of selection for increased body size alone. Here we assess the effects of body size, body-size dimorphism, and social structure on canine dimorphism among platyrrhine monkeys. Platyrrhine species examined are classified into four behavioral groups reflecting the intensity of intermale competition for access to females or to limiting resources. As canine dimorphism increases, so does the level of intermale competition. Those species with monogamous and polyandrous social structures have the lowest canine dimorphism, while those with dominance rank hierarchies of males have the most canine dimorphism. Species with fission-fusion social structures and transitory intermale breeding-season competition fall between these extremes. Among platyrrhines there is a significant positive correlation between body size and canine dimorphism However, within levels of competition, no significant correlation was found between the two. Also, with increased body size, body-size dimorphism tends to increase, and this correlation holds in some cases within competition levels. In an analysis of covariance, once the level of intermale competition is controlled for, neither molar size nor molar-size dimorphism accounts for a significant part of the variance in canine dimorphism. A similar analysis using body weight as a measure of size and dimorphism yields a less clear-cut picture: body weight contributes significantly to the model when the effects of the other factors are controlled. Finally, in a model using head and body length as a measure of size and dimorphism, all factors and the interactions between them are significant. We conclude that intermale competition among platyrrhine species is the most important factor explaining variations in canine dimorphism. The significant effects of size and size dimorphism in some models may be evidence that natural (as opposed to sexual) selection also plays a role in the evolution of increased canine dimorphism.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Oral contraceptive administration, interfemale relationships, and sexual behavior in Macaca fascicularis.

The effects of oral contraceptive administration on the social relationships of adult female cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were examined. Ten females were administered ethinyl estradiol/ethynodiol diacetate (Demulen), 10 were administered ethinyl estradiol/norgestrel (Ovral), and 10 served as a control group. The monkeys lived in social groups of 5 females each, and patterns of social interaction and social status were recorded. Interfemale relationships were also observed when a vasectomized male was placed in each social group for 50 min, once/week. During the latter observations, preliminary data on the effects of oral contraceptive treatment on sexual interaction were also collected. In the absence of the male, interfemale agonistic interactions and time spent alone were influenced by social status but not by oral contraceptive treatment. Time spent in passive body contact, an affiliative state, was reduced by Ovral treatment. In the presence of the male, dominant females aggressively interfered with the sexual interactions of subordinates. This aggression resulted in the termination of a greater proportion of the sexual interactions of subordinates than dominants in the control group only, indicating suppression of this type of interaction by oral contraceptive treatment. Other effects included a decreased frequency of ejaculation with Ovral-treated females. These results suggest that oral contraceptives may suppress certain types of female agonistic behavior (e.g., in the context of mate competition) and some oral contraceptives may interfere with sexual activity. More broadly, these findings indicate that intrasexual competition for access to mates may occur in females as well as males.

Aggression↗