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Affect, accessibility of material in memory, and behavior: a cognitive loop?

Two studies investigated the effect of good mood on cognitive processes. In the first study, conducted in a shopping mall, a positive feeling state was induced by giving subjects a free gift, and good mood, thus induced, was found to improve subjects' evaluations of the performance and service records of products they owned. In the second study, in which affect was induced by having subjects win or lose a computer game in a laboratory setting, subjects who had won the game were found to be better able to recall positive material in memory. The results of the two studies are discussed in terms of the effect that feelings have on accessibility of cognitions. In addition, the nature of affect and the relationship between good mood and behavior (such as helping) are discussed in terms of this proposed cognitive process.

Affect

Observations of a health and healing system in a Papago community.

The Papago people in the Tohono village have a repertoire of culturally stylized patterns of behavior to help them maintain their health. The use of foods and ceremonies for preventing illness and maintaning health are emphasized in the styles of the people as well as the concept of taking care of self and others. Comfort and discomfort, fatigue, aches, thirst, hunger, and sadness are daily experiences of the people. Laughter, crying, "taking care of self and others", walking slowly, eating beans and tortillas, maintaining calm thoughts, and so on, are all culturally defined patterns for coping with alterations in feeling. When professional healers are needed, they will be consulted according to how helpful people perceive these healers to be by their sensitive attitudes and actions. The medicine man, nurses, medicine ladies, the ladies-who-pray, physicians, and St. Francis are perceived to be members of the health care team for the Papago people. The meaningful patterning of culturally defined behavior must be understood within the context of the Papago cultural system. As illustrated by the Tohono, "taking care of self and others" is highly valued, but it is only meaningful as we understand the rules of the Papago society, particularly the religious and kinship systems. These systems tell us that family members are important in taking care of themselves and others. Thus, the description in this paper of culturally patterned health practices with their rituals, ceremonies, and ways to help maintain health and heal the sick help the reader to understand the importance of health and healing behaviors within a designated cultural context. In this study, it is the Papago community and their specialty life ways of maintaining health and preventing illnesses.

Adolescent

Does help help? The adaptive consequences of obtaining help from professionals and social networks.

This study reports on a longitudinal analysis of changes in adaptation associated with seeking help on a representative sample of Chicago area adults who had experienced one of three transitions or four crises during the interval between 1972 and follow-up 1976--77 interviews. For each event, respondents are classified into three groups according to their help-seeking behavior: those who went to professionals, those who went only to their social networks, and those who had the event but sought no help. Nine measures of adaptation are used: symptoms of anxiety and depression and strains and stresses in four role areas. Statistical controls equate the groups on demographic characteristics, perceived stress, personal resources, access to help, and elapsed time since the event. There are no consistent statistical significant differences among the groups. No evidence is found that help-seeking has positive adaptive consequences. The findings are not likely to result from an inadequate sample, outcome measures, or statistical controls, but could result from insufficient information on the kind, quality, and duration of the help provided.

Adaptation, Psychological

Isolation and identification of two learning-induced brain peptides.

Goldfish were trained either to avoid the blue compartment of a tank and swim into the green compartment or, conversely, to avoid green and prefer blue. Preliminary experiments indicated that acquisition of the avoidance behavior was associated with the presence in the brain of two peptides, one found in blue avoiding (BA), another in green avoiding (GA) fish. With the help of behavioral bioassays, the peptides were isolated and purified, and their structure was determined by ultrasmicroanalytical techniques. The sequence of the BA peptide, pglu-ile-gly-ala-val-phe-pro-leu-lys-tyr-gly-ser-lys-OH was reproduced by synthesis. Sequential analysis of the GA peptide gave two alternative structures, NAc-lys-gly-gln-ile-ala-val-phe-pro-leu-lys-tyr-gly-ser-OH or NAc-lys-gly-ala-val-gln-ile-phe-pro-lys-tyr-gly-ser-OH, both of which are being synthetized to be compared with the natural compound. Overlapping sequences between the BA and GA peptides suggest the existence of a family of peptides associated with behavior based on color discrimination.

Amino Acid Sequence

Adaptive behavior and Uzgiris-Hunt Scale performance of young, developmentally disabled children.

The relationship between performance on a Piaget-based infant scale and adaptive behavior was assessed for 25 developmentally disabled infants and preschool children. Results indicated a significant relationship between these measures. Canonical analysis suggested the relevance of the Piagetian abilities of object permanence and foresight and the adaptive behavior skills of self-help and social behavior for this relationship. Discussion centered on research implications emerging from these findings.

Child Development

Self-concept and delinquency proneness.

Contrary to the theory of the homeostatic model of self-concept, i.e., the expectancy that engaging in anti-social or pro-social behavior results typically in shifts in the self-concept (Graf, 1968; Deitz, 1970 shifts did not occur. Subjects, 12- 14-year-old boys enrolled in junior high school, delinquent prone (DP) and non-delinquent prone bright (NDPB), reacted to manipulation by engaging in reparative behavior as indicated via an aggression module in a fashion generally expected but the expected shift from chronic self-images did not occur. Both DP and NDPB viewed themselves similarly on self concept. The authors postulated that if shifts would occur for the delinquent prone it would be after they left school with its accompanying identification with a sub-culture outside the school setting.

Adolescent

Group selection, altruism, reinforcement, and throwing in human evolution.

Evolution of altruism by group selection involves sacrifice of some individuals, not to the "group as a whole," but to other individuals in the group. Deme-group selection may establish strictly altruistic genes in a population, but only under limited conditions, and perhaps never among vertebrates, among which apparently altruistic behaviors may always potentially benefit the altruists. Responsive-group selection is a more effective mode of evolution of altruism, conspicuous in man. Evolutionary reinforcement increases the force of selection of advantageous behaviors, including altruistic ones, by making them pleasant or rewarding. It is probably involved also in ecological habitat selection, and may be the source of many human emotions, including esthetic ones. Throwing (of stones and weapons) exemplifies both the possible importance of a difficult-to-measure evolutionary factor and the role of reinforcement; in human evolution throwing may have been decisive in food-getting and fighting, in shifting emphasis from brute force to skill, and in inducing evolution of a brain able to handle three-body geometric problems precisely and thus preadapted for more complex functions.

Anthropology, Physical

Sex typing and androgyny: further explorations of the expressive domain.

Previous research by Bem has indicated that androgynous individuals of both sexes display "masculine" independence when under pressure to conform as well as "feminine" nurturance when interacting with a kitten. In contrast, sex-typed individuals were low in one or both of these behaviors. The two studies reported here were designed to replicate the low nurturance of the masculine male and to clarify the unexpected finding that feminine females were low in both independence and nurturance. In the first study subjects interacted with a human infant, and in the second study they listened to a lonely student. Taken together, the results of these two studies conceptually replicated the low nurturance of the masculine male and demonstrated that the low nurturance of the feminine female does not extend to her interaction with humans. Finally, evidence was presented in support of Spence, Helmreich, and Stapp's distinction between "androgynous" individuals, who are high in both masculinity and feminity, and "undifferentiated" individuals, who are low in both of these characteristics.

Female

The effects of self-selection on trainees' verbal helping skills performance.

Self-selected paraprofessional trainees enrolled in a helping skills training program participated in a 6-minute pretraining helping interview from which their frequency of continuing responses was obtained. Continuing responses allow helpees to present their concerns in a nonthreatening, supportive environment and are important in the relationship establishing stage of the helping process. For data analysis purposes only, trainees were divided into three groups, a high, medium, and low group, based on the frequency of continuing responses made. Following training, at posttest, no significant differences were found among the three groups on the amount of continuing responses made during a second identical 6-minute interview. Implications for various selection procedures and training are discussed.

Adult

Social norms and helping in a community of limited liability.

The social norms constraining interpersonal helping (formal and informal) were studied by the analysis of interviews of 348 persons in the Chicago area. The findings showed that only half the respondents who received help from family and friends believed that they had a right to such help. Three-fourths of those persons receiving help from professional practitioners believed they had a right to such help. There was a definite relationship between the kinds of rights and the kinds of duties reported by those who believed they had such rights and duties. The relationship was significantly different in personal helping among families and friends from what it was in professional helping processes with practitioners.

Adaptation, Psychological

The relationship of life event interpretations to helping interactions: a case study.

When people seek help for a stressful event, they believe they lack the necessary resources to cope with the event; therefore, they seek those resources. Before deciding which resources are necessary, they must first assign meaning to the event. That meaning affects the helping interaction--the resources sought, helper selected, and relationship with the helper. One case was selected to illustrate the nature of the relationship between the interpretation of a stressful event and the subsequent helping interaction. The discussion of the case focuses on: (a) an illustration of substitution and modeling processes; (b) the desirability dimension as applicable to the prospect, process, and outcome of an event; (c) the function of intimacy in the resolution of a problem event, and (d) the reinterpretation of an event at critical points between the event's occurrence and its resolution.

Adaptation, Psychological

Small supportive treatment units and the problem of recidivism in indigent chronic schizophrenic patients.

This is a report of a three and a half-year follow up of uprooted chronic schizophrenics, who had become disposition problems at the time of discharge from a state psychiatric hospital. One group of 14 was discharged to themselves, another in small supporting units to share living quarters with fellow patients. The results are encouraging and may throw some light into the problem of recidivism. All patients were diagnosed chronic schizophrenic. They had multiple hospitalizations, came from the same catchment area, and were followed by the same therapist in the same hospital setting. Patients who shared living quarters with other patients did better in terms of post hospitalization adjustment, reduced readmission and subsequent time spent in hospital, employment and self-responsibility compared to patients living alone.

Adult