The experiment described in this paper compares the effects of descriptive terms on farmers' will... more The experiment described in this paper compares the effects of descriptive terms on farmers' willingness to use and willingness to pay for recycled water for irrigation and consumers' willingness to use and willingness to pay for products irrigated with recycled water. In the descriptive materials and questionnaire items used in a field survey, treated effluent from wastewater treatment plants was described as ''recycled water" for one experimental group and as ''treated wastewater" for another. Although the two terms describe the same commodity (i.e. purified effluent from wastewater treatment facilities) willingness to use was reliably higher with the ''recycled water" descriptor for both farmers and consumers. In contrast, the descriptor affected willingness to pay only in the consumer sample; decisions about personal consumption of food products might be more affected by the differential disgust-eliciting effectiveness of descriptors than farmers' business decisions concerning the irrigation of products to be consumed by others. Respondents of both samples who were unwilling to use recycled water commodities most often cited feelings of disgust as the main cause of their rejection, supporting the view that successful marketing strategies for this valuable resource must take into account the normative learning histories of potential consumers.
ABSTRACT Research across a range of disaster types has identified that psychological disturbances... more ABSTRACT Research across a range of disaster types has identified that psychological disturbances are common in the aftermath. The consequences of these disturbances can be long lasting.Objectives This study assessed the long-term mental health effects of a wildfire disaster which happen in a rural area of Greece in 2007.Aimsa) to assess the course of psychopathology associated with the disaster, b) to evaluate if there are differences in psychological distress between victims and controls 3 years after the disaster.Methods The population for this cross-sectional study was a random sample of adult population (18–65 years old) of victims and controls who had been assessed 2½ years before. The measured variables were: a) demographics b) Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R).Results530 participants (301 victims and 229 controls). Attrition rate: 13.8%. Psychological distress was significantly (p < 0.05) lower 3 years after the disaster compared to initial assessments. However, victims of the wildfires still had more distress compared to controls. Similarly, the number of caseness (as it is defined by the SCL-90-R) was significantly higher in the victims’ group compared to controls’. In contrast, there was a significant reduction of the rates of caseness in both victims and controls compared to initial assessments.Conclusions Most psychological problems decreased from the initial (6 months after the disaster) to the second survey (3 years after) among affected from the wildfires participants. Although their psychological problems decreased, victims still had more psychological problems (e.g. anxiety, somatisation, phobias) than the participants in the control group.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Oct 18, 2013
Male office workers reported levels of distress elicited by personal violations of a range of mas... more Male office workers reported levels of distress elicited by personal violations of a range of masculine gender role expectations, as well as their proclivities to coerce sexual favors from “attractive” subordinate women via bribery or extortion. Sexual harassment proclivity levels were directly correlated with levels of distress related to four dimensions of masculine gender role violations, including acts of subordination to women, public expression of emotional behavior, inadequate heterosexual prowess, and inferiority in athletic and intellectual domains. These findings accord with an interpretation that men's quid pro quo sexual harassment may be motivated by the social punishment of their own failures to conform to masculine gender role expectations, including, but importantly, not limited to the expectation that men should punish women's violations of feminine gender role norms.
Psychological distress is common in the aftermath of a disaster. This study investigated psycholo... more Psychological distress is common in the aftermath of a disaster. This study investigated psychological distress and morbidity in individuals who had experienced severe exposure to a wildfire disaster in a part of Greece. The study was a cross sectional case control of an adult population (18-65 years old). Face to face interviews were used in the collection of the data which were demographics, the type and number of losses and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised for assessment of psychological symptoms. The results showed that those exposed to wildfires disaster scored significantly higher on the symptoms of somatization, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, and paranoia; had significantly more symptoms of psychopathology and were more distressed, compared to controls. Risk factors for potential psychiatric cases were those exposed to disaster; those who had lower education, and those who were widowed. It was concluded that wildfires may cause considerable psychological symptoms comparable to other disasters and there are reasons to create services to help and improve the mental health of those affected.
A comparison was made of the effects of long-term exposure to fixed-interval reinforcement with u... more A comparison was made of the effects of long-term exposure to fixed-interval reinforcement with unsignaled and with signaled reinforcement omissions. When successive fixed-interval cycles ended in reinforcement, subjects showed a clear "scalloped" response pattern. When reinforcement was omitted, but a brief signal was given in lieu of reinforcement, responding in the next cycle started earlier than it did after reinforcement. When reinforcement was omitted without exteroceptive cues, response rates peaked near the time of reinforcement and then declined to a flat but substantial level. The classic reinforcement-omission effect was observed, in that total responding was greatest after uncued omission, somewhat less after cued omission, and least after reinforcement. However, response rate plotted as a function of time showed that the uncued-omission condition had a very different function from that of the cued-omission or reinforcement conditions. A failed-discrimination account of the omission effect might accommodate the three functions if the discrimination is considered to be a temporal one. The temporal-discrimination account argues that high-rate responding reflects the accumulation of subjective time proximal to the memory of the time of reinforcement. The accumulation resets completely with food reinforcement, incompletely with cues in lieu of reinforcement, and not at all in the absence of cues.
Posttraumatic growth (the perception of positive life changes after the encounter with a trauma) ... more Posttraumatic growth (the perception of positive life changes after the encounter with a trauma) often occurs among breast cancer patients and can be influenced by certain demographic, medical and psychosocial parameters. Social constraints on disclosure (the deprivation of the opportunity to express feelings and thoughts regarding the trauma) and the cognitive processing of the disease seem to be involved in the development of posttraumatic growth. The present study aimed to: investigate the levels of posttraumatic growth in a sample of 202 women with breast cancer in Greece, explore the relationships between posttraumatic growth and particular demographic, medical and psychosocial variables according to a proposed model, and test the role of social constraints in the relationship between automatic and deliberate cognitive processing of the trauma. The results showed that posttraumatic growth was evident in the majority of the sample and was associated inversely with age at diagnosis (β = -0.174, p < .05) and psychological distress (β = -0.394, p = .001), directly with time since diagnosis (β = 0.181, p < .05) and indirectly with intrusions and psychological distress, through reflective rumination (β = 0.323, p = .001). Social constraints were found to moderate the relationship between intrusions and reflective rumination. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research and practice are outlined.
IntroductionPsychopathological disturbances are common in the aftermaths of a disaster. The conse... more IntroductionPsychopathological disturbances are common in the aftermaths of a disaster. The consequences of these disorders can be long lasting. In August of 2007 an intense and destructive wildfire broke out in the Peloponnesus peninsula in Greece.ObjectivesTo investigate psychological and psychiatric morbidity in individuals who had experienced severe exposure to a wildfire disaster in a part of Greece and to indentify risk factors for the post disaster psychological problems.AimsTo investigate a broader spectrum of mid-term psychological and psychiatric morbidity in victims, to evaluate the proportion of psychopathology that could be accredited to the disaster, to estimate the association of losses with different psychological symptoms, to indentify risk factors for psychopathology.MethodsA Cross sectional case control study of adult population (18–65 years old). Data collected among others were demographic, Symptom Checklist 90-Revised for assessment of psychological difficulties, type and number of losses.ResultsThose damnified from the disaster scored significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the symptoms of somatisation, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoia, and had significantly more symptoms (PST) and were more distressed by them (GSI) compared to controls. In addition risk factors for someone to be a psychiatric case were to be a victim from the fire, to have finished primary school, to be windowed and to have damages to his property.ConclusionsWildfires can cause considerable psychological symptoms in victims and there are reasons for public health policy makers to create services in order to help and improve the mental health of those affected.
We investigated the trust in institutions, social values and personal attitudes of individuals in... more We investigated the trust in institutions, social values and personal attitudes of individuals in a part of Greece, after a wildfire disaster. The design of the study was a cross sectional, case-control study. Data collected were trust in institutions, social and personal attitudes, type and number of losses. The results show that victims and controls have low trust in all the institutions and share similar social and personal attitudes. Controlling for other variables, victims of the wildfires were less likely to appreciate stable social rules, to value the dialogue, autonomy, mutual support, modesty, wealth, equality, compliance with law, devotion, public recognition, safety and less likely to trust the government but more likely to trust church. This study suggests that victims of the wildfires in Greece did not appreciate important social values which bring a society together, they have a low trust in institutions, and they have a weak social cohesion which perhaps pre-existed the disaster; just the disaster has made all of them worse.
As emerging encryption technology results in widespread freedom from detection of online activity... more As emerging encryption technology results in widespread freedom from detection of online activity, Homo Virtualis might usefully be considered as Homo sapiens without a gun to its head-a highly evolved species experiencing, for the first time on a massive scale, a home environment in which the individual who engages in acts that harm others is not identifiable. This renders the punishment of antisocial behavior in this context impossible, clearing the warning signals for retribution and crippling this ancient and brutal method for limiting the occurrence of antisocial or unwanted behavior. If Homo Virtualis is to retain this newfound freedom from threat and invigilation, prosocial behavior must continue to prevail in the absence of credible threat of punishment for the antisocial. The prospects are far from certain, and an attendant spike in the frequency of misdeed would be sure to evoke a crackdown on encryption tech. On the bright side, a widespread failure of punishment to inhibit malice and malfeasance online might finally evoke serious consideration of how H. sapiens might ensure a low frequency of antisocial behavior absent the threat of dire consequence for transgression, via the positive reinforcement of prosocial conduct, rendering interpersonal and community sensitivity and service pleasurable rather than obligatory. Encryption technologies can provide valuable support for such a comprehensively humanistic effort to reduce malfeasance by eliminating threats of public censure for current and budding offenders' own efforts to address their problematic proclivities.
Despite an extensive history of serviceable analyses of behavior-environment conditions arranged ... more Despite an extensive history of serviceable analyses of behavior-environment conditions arranged by artists to elicit aesthetic experience, unforeseen transformational effects controlling aesthetic responses are often relegated to an unknowable dimension of mind or spirit. Francis Mechner demystifies aesthetic effects by describing their plausible relations to distal events in phylogeny and ontogeny in accord with principles of an experimentally derived, general process theory of behavior. In identifying a blending of temporally extended concept repertoires as the key generic component of aesthetic effects, Mechner's approach provides a potential educational or treatment goal for individuals limited in aesthetic experience. The synergetic brews that might otherwise evoke a confluence of repertoires may not have sufficient positive reinforcing potency to ensure the requisite emission of the behaviors that produce them. Moreover, dynamically combinatorial events might even become aversive when acts are differentially punished in their presence. By creating operant chains in which the production, attendance to, or interaction with synergetic stimuli become a differential context of positive reinforcement, the frequency of occurrence of aesthetic appreciation might be multiplied.
European journal of behavior analysis, Dec 1, 2013
This article provides a tentative account of a much-discussed clinical phenomenon called “thought... more This article provides a tentative account of a much-discussed clinical phenomenon called “thought-action fusion” and its relation to “obsessive” thinking, in terms of a general process interpretation of the determination of operant and respondent behavior derived from experimental analysis. In an interpretive approach originated by B. F. Skinner (e.g., 1953; 1957) the present account invokes plausible, untested causal relations among response-produced private events and behavior occurring in operant chains, and illustrates the more general utility of this practice for the understanding problematic thinking in clinical behavior analysis. Finally, a case is made for the potential therapeutic efficacy of providing simplified versions of such natural science-based interpretations of the determination of troublesome patterns of covert behavior to psychotherapy clients themselves.
This study explored the utility of a conception of parental educational involvement as the arrang... more This study explored the utility of a conception of parental educational involvement as the arrangement of contingency operations that normatively change: the frequency of children's school-related behaviour, the reinforcing potency of stimuli produced by studying, and children's tendencies to request parental intervention. A child-report measure of parental contingency use was developed and administered to 1520 schoolchildren (Grades Four to Six). An exploratory factor analysis revealed three internally consistent dimensions of parental practices: use of punishment and negative reinforcement contingencies; use of positive reinforcement contingencies; and non-responsiveness to children's requests for educational intervention. Frequencies of use of punishment/negative reinforcement contingencies and of parental non-responsiveness were inversely correlated with use of positive reinforcement contingencies and with teacher's reports of children's achievement. These scales might therefore identify parents whose current educational practices are likely to be less than optimally effective, so that they might be helped to intervene more beneficially in their children's academic affairs.
This study provided controlled observations of a potential mechanism for the determination of the... more This study provided controlled observations of a potential mechanism for the determination of the repetitive, aberrant perceptions or interpretations of everyday events that figure prominently in a range of psychological disorders: the adventitious reinforcement of acts of cognition by the actual consequences of concurrent motor acts. Adults made a series of two-choice brightness discriminations; on 60% of trials, choosing the brighter stimulus produced a ''correct'' signal while errors produced an aversive sound. On 40% of trials, the choice stimuli did not in fact differ in brightness; the consequences of responding on these ''identical stimuli'' trials differed across blocks of trials. Thus, on these trials perceptual judgments were directly followed by events that they did not produce. When all choices on identical stimuli trials were punished with the ''error'' sound, subjects showed little preference for the left-side or right-side identical stimuli, but when all choices of identical stimuli were reinforced with the ''correct'' light, individual preferences for the left-side or the right-side stimuli substantially increased. As the consequences of responding on identical stimuli trials were independent of the stimuli chosen, these findings provide evidence for superstitious perception, the reinforcement of perceptual acts by events that do not depend upon their occurrence.
Schoolchildren reported their parents' use of aversive control an... more Schoolchildren reported their parents' use of aversive control and positive reinforcement contingencies in their educational interventions, as well as parental non-responsiveness to their requests for educational assistance. They also reported their own levels of six dimensions of anxiety disorder-related phenomena. Both parental use of aversive control and non-responsiveness were directly related to overall levels of child anxiety disorder-related behavior; these correlations were more robust than those observed in previous investigations of more diffuse dimensions of parenting style and trait anxiety. Panic disorder/agoraphobia and Generalized anxiety disorder were the dimensions most strongly correlated with both parental aversive control and non-responsiveness, while Compulsive behavior was uniquely uncorrelated with parental non-responsiveness and uniquely correlated with parental use of positive reinforcement contingencies. Differences in the magnitudes of correlations between anxiety disorder-related dimensions and parental educational practices are interpreted in terms of the probable differential effectiveness of their constituent behaviors in terminating parent-mediated negative reinforcers.
His research concerns basic processes of learning and motivation, behavioral assessment, and the ... more His research concerns basic processes of learning and motivation, behavioral assessment, and the application of behavior-analytic principles in psychotherapy, education, environmental design, and public policy.
Issues related to infant intersensory functioning are reviewed. The argument is offered that limi... more Issues related to infant intersensory functioning are reviewed. The argument is offered that limitations of sensory inputs during early stages of development are necessary and provide structure and organization which determine behavioural characteristics at later stages. It is also suggested that infant organisms respond to the intensity of stimulation rather than organizational characteristics and that this is responsible for the form of sensory equivalence apparent during early development. A scheme for the investigation of sources of intersensory organization is presented which involves a prospective analysis of how consideration of the times of onset of sensory functions helps us to understand intra-and intersensory development. The advantages of this experimental approach arc outlined.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Mar 1, 1990
Pigeons were given a choice between two identical-duration situations (terminal links of chain sc... more Pigeons were given a choice between two identical-duration situations (terminal links of chain schedules). One terminal link of the choice pair provided two food deliveries, and the other provided five. The exact times of these food deliveries differed between the terminal links and were varied over conditions. A single response during the initial link gave immediate access to the corresponding terminal link. Forced trials, during which only one of the initial-link keys was lighted, were interspersed with choice trials during which both initial-link keys were lighted. Choice tended to favor whichever terminal link was correlated with the higher sum of the immediacies (i.e., the sum of the reciprocals of the delays to each of the reinforcers following the choice, with all delays measured from the choice). Latencies on forced trials and on choice trials also were related (negatively) to the sum of the immediacies. This correlation among response measures (choice and latencies) suggests that both measures are manifestations of the effect of conditioned reinforcement on response tendencies.
This contribution looks into logos as a powerful designing tool which can promote the implementat... more This contribution looks into logos as a powerful designing tool which can promote the implementation of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) policy. Given the lack of universal logo which would communicate the RES-derived products and services effectively, we initially explored the public's emotions, thoughts, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs and attitudes towards RES and non-RES through their design illustration. Experts decoded a total of 769 RES and 737 non-RES designs of four different sample groups ranging from the less informed children to well-informed engineers, and defined the design variables of a RES logo. On the basis of these design guidelines, professional designers created 60 RES logos. Besides, 432 participants randomly selected evaluated the logos on a score scale from 1 to 6. Interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and semiotic analysis of the winner logo revealed that in order to promote the RES use, a logo should be of round shape; present a sense of movement; convey a clear positive message; embed natural elements in the composition of the image with various hues of green, white and yellow-orange colours; include visually acute, religious and cultural symbols, and carry connotations of personal and social responsibility. This is the first attempt of designing a RES logo with public participation.
The experiment described in this paper compares the effects of descriptive terms on farmers' will... more The experiment described in this paper compares the effects of descriptive terms on farmers' willingness to use and willingness to pay for recycled water for irrigation and consumers' willingness to use and willingness to pay for products irrigated with recycled water. In the descriptive materials and questionnaire items used in a field survey, treated effluent from wastewater treatment plants was described as ''recycled water" for one experimental group and as ''treated wastewater" for another. Although the two terms describe the same commodity (i.e. purified effluent from wastewater treatment facilities) willingness to use was reliably higher with the ''recycled water" descriptor for both farmers and consumers. In contrast, the descriptor affected willingness to pay only in the consumer sample; decisions about personal consumption of food products might be more affected by the differential disgust-eliciting effectiveness of descriptors than farmers' business decisions concerning the irrigation of products to be consumed by others. Respondents of both samples who were unwilling to use recycled water commodities most often cited feelings of disgust as the main cause of their rejection, supporting the view that successful marketing strategies for this valuable resource must take into account the normative learning histories of potential consumers.
ABSTRACT Research across a range of disaster types has identified that psychological disturbances... more ABSTRACT Research across a range of disaster types has identified that psychological disturbances are common in the aftermath. The consequences of these disturbances can be long lasting.Objectives This study assessed the long-term mental health effects of a wildfire disaster which happen in a rural area of Greece in 2007.Aimsa) to assess the course of psychopathology associated with the disaster, b) to evaluate if there are differences in psychological distress between victims and controls 3 years after the disaster.Methods The population for this cross-sectional study was a random sample of adult population (18–65 years old) of victims and controls who had been assessed 2½ years before. The measured variables were: a) demographics b) Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R).Results530 participants (301 victims and 229 controls). Attrition rate: 13.8%. Psychological distress was significantly (p < 0.05) lower 3 years after the disaster compared to initial assessments. However, victims of the wildfires still had more distress compared to controls. Similarly, the number of caseness (as it is defined by the SCL-90-R) was significantly higher in the victims’ group compared to controls’. In contrast, there was a significant reduction of the rates of caseness in both victims and controls compared to initial assessments.Conclusions Most psychological problems decreased from the initial (6 months after the disaster) to the second survey (3 years after) among affected from the wildfires participants. Although their psychological problems decreased, victims still had more psychological problems (e.g. anxiety, somatisation, phobias) than the participants in the control group.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Oct 18, 2013
Male office workers reported levels of distress elicited by personal violations of a range of mas... more Male office workers reported levels of distress elicited by personal violations of a range of masculine gender role expectations, as well as their proclivities to coerce sexual favors from “attractive” subordinate women via bribery or extortion. Sexual harassment proclivity levels were directly correlated with levels of distress related to four dimensions of masculine gender role violations, including acts of subordination to women, public expression of emotional behavior, inadequate heterosexual prowess, and inferiority in athletic and intellectual domains. These findings accord with an interpretation that men's quid pro quo sexual harassment may be motivated by the social punishment of their own failures to conform to masculine gender role expectations, including, but importantly, not limited to the expectation that men should punish women's violations of feminine gender role norms.
Psychological distress is common in the aftermath of a disaster. This study investigated psycholo... more Psychological distress is common in the aftermath of a disaster. This study investigated psychological distress and morbidity in individuals who had experienced severe exposure to a wildfire disaster in a part of Greece. The study was a cross sectional case control of an adult population (18-65 years old). Face to face interviews were used in the collection of the data which were demographics, the type and number of losses and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised for assessment of psychological symptoms. The results showed that those exposed to wildfires disaster scored significantly higher on the symptoms of somatization, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, and paranoia; had significantly more symptoms of psychopathology and were more distressed, compared to controls. Risk factors for potential psychiatric cases were those exposed to disaster; those who had lower education, and those who were widowed. It was concluded that wildfires may cause considerable psychological symptoms comparable to other disasters and there are reasons to create services to help and improve the mental health of those affected.
A comparison was made of the effects of long-term exposure to fixed-interval reinforcement with u... more A comparison was made of the effects of long-term exposure to fixed-interval reinforcement with unsignaled and with signaled reinforcement omissions. When successive fixed-interval cycles ended in reinforcement, subjects showed a clear "scalloped" response pattern. When reinforcement was omitted, but a brief signal was given in lieu of reinforcement, responding in the next cycle started earlier than it did after reinforcement. When reinforcement was omitted without exteroceptive cues, response rates peaked near the time of reinforcement and then declined to a flat but substantial level. The classic reinforcement-omission effect was observed, in that total responding was greatest after uncued omission, somewhat less after cued omission, and least after reinforcement. However, response rate plotted as a function of time showed that the uncued-omission condition had a very different function from that of the cued-omission or reinforcement conditions. A failed-discrimination account of the omission effect might accommodate the three functions if the discrimination is considered to be a temporal one. The temporal-discrimination account argues that high-rate responding reflects the accumulation of subjective time proximal to the memory of the time of reinforcement. The accumulation resets completely with food reinforcement, incompletely with cues in lieu of reinforcement, and not at all in the absence of cues.
Posttraumatic growth (the perception of positive life changes after the encounter with a trauma) ... more Posttraumatic growth (the perception of positive life changes after the encounter with a trauma) often occurs among breast cancer patients and can be influenced by certain demographic, medical and psychosocial parameters. Social constraints on disclosure (the deprivation of the opportunity to express feelings and thoughts regarding the trauma) and the cognitive processing of the disease seem to be involved in the development of posttraumatic growth. The present study aimed to: investigate the levels of posttraumatic growth in a sample of 202 women with breast cancer in Greece, explore the relationships between posttraumatic growth and particular demographic, medical and psychosocial variables according to a proposed model, and test the role of social constraints in the relationship between automatic and deliberate cognitive processing of the trauma. The results showed that posttraumatic growth was evident in the majority of the sample and was associated inversely with age at diagnosis (β = -0.174, p < .05) and psychological distress (β = -0.394, p = .001), directly with time since diagnosis (β = 0.181, p < .05) and indirectly with intrusions and psychological distress, through reflective rumination (β = 0.323, p = .001). Social constraints were found to moderate the relationship between intrusions and reflective rumination. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research and practice are outlined.
IntroductionPsychopathological disturbances are common in the aftermaths of a disaster. The conse... more IntroductionPsychopathological disturbances are common in the aftermaths of a disaster. The consequences of these disorders can be long lasting. In August of 2007 an intense and destructive wildfire broke out in the Peloponnesus peninsula in Greece.ObjectivesTo investigate psychological and psychiatric morbidity in individuals who had experienced severe exposure to a wildfire disaster in a part of Greece and to indentify risk factors for the post disaster psychological problems.AimsTo investigate a broader spectrum of mid-term psychological and psychiatric morbidity in victims, to evaluate the proportion of psychopathology that could be accredited to the disaster, to estimate the association of losses with different psychological symptoms, to indentify risk factors for psychopathology.MethodsA Cross sectional case control study of adult population (18–65 years old). Data collected among others were demographic, Symptom Checklist 90-Revised for assessment of psychological difficulties, type and number of losses.ResultsThose damnified from the disaster scored significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the symptoms of somatisation, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoia, and had significantly more symptoms (PST) and were more distressed by them (GSI) compared to controls. In addition risk factors for someone to be a psychiatric case were to be a victim from the fire, to have finished primary school, to be windowed and to have damages to his property.ConclusionsWildfires can cause considerable psychological symptoms in victims and there are reasons for public health policy makers to create services in order to help and improve the mental health of those affected.
We investigated the trust in institutions, social values and personal attitudes of individuals in... more We investigated the trust in institutions, social values and personal attitudes of individuals in a part of Greece, after a wildfire disaster. The design of the study was a cross sectional, case-control study. Data collected were trust in institutions, social and personal attitudes, type and number of losses. The results show that victims and controls have low trust in all the institutions and share similar social and personal attitudes. Controlling for other variables, victims of the wildfires were less likely to appreciate stable social rules, to value the dialogue, autonomy, mutual support, modesty, wealth, equality, compliance with law, devotion, public recognition, safety and less likely to trust the government but more likely to trust church. This study suggests that victims of the wildfires in Greece did not appreciate important social values which bring a society together, they have a low trust in institutions, and they have a weak social cohesion which perhaps pre-existed the disaster; just the disaster has made all of them worse.
As emerging encryption technology results in widespread freedom from detection of online activity... more As emerging encryption technology results in widespread freedom from detection of online activity, Homo Virtualis might usefully be considered as Homo sapiens without a gun to its head-a highly evolved species experiencing, for the first time on a massive scale, a home environment in which the individual who engages in acts that harm others is not identifiable. This renders the punishment of antisocial behavior in this context impossible, clearing the warning signals for retribution and crippling this ancient and brutal method for limiting the occurrence of antisocial or unwanted behavior. If Homo Virtualis is to retain this newfound freedom from threat and invigilation, prosocial behavior must continue to prevail in the absence of credible threat of punishment for the antisocial. The prospects are far from certain, and an attendant spike in the frequency of misdeed would be sure to evoke a crackdown on encryption tech. On the bright side, a widespread failure of punishment to inhibit malice and malfeasance online might finally evoke serious consideration of how H. sapiens might ensure a low frequency of antisocial behavior absent the threat of dire consequence for transgression, via the positive reinforcement of prosocial conduct, rendering interpersonal and community sensitivity and service pleasurable rather than obligatory. Encryption technologies can provide valuable support for such a comprehensively humanistic effort to reduce malfeasance by eliminating threats of public censure for current and budding offenders' own efforts to address their problematic proclivities.
Despite an extensive history of serviceable analyses of behavior-environment conditions arranged ... more Despite an extensive history of serviceable analyses of behavior-environment conditions arranged by artists to elicit aesthetic experience, unforeseen transformational effects controlling aesthetic responses are often relegated to an unknowable dimension of mind or spirit. Francis Mechner demystifies aesthetic effects by describing their plausible relations to distal events in phylogeny and ontogeny in accord with principles of an experimentally derived, general process theory of behavior. In identifying a blending of temporally extended concept repertoires as the key generic component of aesthetic effects, Mechner's approach provides a potential educational or treatment goal for individuals limited in aesthetic experience. The synergetic brews that might otherwise evoke a confluence of repertoires may not have sufficient positive reinforcing potency to ensure the requisite emission of the behaviors that produce them. Moreover, dynamically combinatorial events might even become aversive when acts are differentially punished in their presence. By creating operant chains in which the production, attendance to, or interaction with synergetic stimuli become a differential context of positive reinforcement, the frequency of occurrence of aesthetic appreciation might be multiplied.
European journal of behavior analysis, Dec 1, 2013
This article provides a tentative account of a much-discussed clinical phenomenon called “thought... more This article provides a tentative account of a much-discussed clinical phenomenon called “thought-action fusion” and its relation to “obsessive” thinking, in terms of a general process interpretation of the determination of operant and respondent behavior derived from experimental analysis. In an interpretive approach originated by B. F. Skinner (e.g., 1953; 1957) the present account invokes plausible, untested causal relations among response-produced private events and behavior occurring in operant chains, and illustrates the more general utility of this practice for the understanding problematic thinking in clinical behavior analysis. Finally, a case is made for the potential therapeutic efficacy of providing simplified versions of such natural science-based interpretations of the determination of troublesome patterns of covert behavior to psychotherapy clients themselves.
This study explored the utility of a conception of parental educational involvement as the arrang... more This study explored the utility of a conception of parental educational involvement as the arrangement of contingency operations that normatively change: the frequency of children's school-related behaviour, the reinforcing potency of stimuli produced by studying, and children's tendencies to request parental intervention. A child-report measure of parental contingency use was developed and administered to 1520 schoolchildren (Grades Four to Six). An exploratory factor analysis revealed three internally consistent dimensions of parental practices: use of punishment and negative reinforcement contingencies; use of positive reinforcement contingencies; and non-responsiveness to children's requests for educational intervention. Frequencies of use of punishment/negative reinforcement contingencies and of parental non-responsiveness were inversely correlated with use of positive reinforcement contingencies and with teacher's reports of children's achievement. These scales might therefore identify parents whose current educational practices are likely to be less than optimally effective, so that they might be helped to intervene more beneficially in their children's academic affairs.
This study provided controlled observations of a potential mechanism for the determination of the... more This study provided controlled observations of a potential mechanism for the determination of the repetitive, aberrant perceptions or interpretations of everyday events that figure prominently in a range of psychological disorders: the adventitious reinforcement of acts of cognition by the actual consequences of concurrent motor acts. Adults made a series of two-choice brightness discriminations; on 60% of trials, choosing the brighter stimulus produced a ''correct'' signal while errors produced an aversive sound. On 40% of trials, the choice stimuli did not in fact differ in brightness; the consequences of responding on these ''identical stimuli'' trials differed across blocks of trials. Thus, on these trials perceptual judgments were directly followed by events that they did not produce. When all choices on identical stimuli trials were punished with the ''error'' sound, subjects showed little preference for the left-side or right-side identical stimuli, but when all choices of identical stimuli were reinforced with the ''correct'' light, individual preferences for the left-side or the right-side stimuli substantially increased. As the consequences of responding on identical stimuli trials were independent of the stimuli chosen, these findings provide evidence for superstitious perception, the reinforcement of perceptual acts by events that do not depend upon their occurrence.
Schoolchildren reported their parents' use of aversive control an... more Schoolchildren reported their parents' use of aversive control and positive reinforcement contingencies in their educational interventions, as well as parental non-responsiveness to their requests for educational assistance. They also reported their own levels of six dimensions of anxiety disorder-related phenomena. Both parental use of aversive control and non-responsiveness were directly related to overall levels of child anxiety disorder-related behavior; these correlations were more robust than those observed in previous investigations of more diffuse dimensions of parenting style and trait anxiety. Panic disorder/agoraphobia and Generalized anxiety disorder were the dimensions most strongly correlated with both parental aversive control and non-responsiveness, while Compulsive behavior was uniquely uncorrelated with parental non-responsiveness and uniquely correlated with parental use of positive reinforcement contingencies. Differences in the magnitudes of correlations between anxiety disorder-related dimensions and parental educational practices are interpreted in terms of the probable differential effectiveness of their constituent behaviors in terminating parent-mediated negative reinforcers.
His research concerns basic processes of learning and motivation, behavioral assessment, and the ... more His research concerns basic processes of learning and motivation, behavioral assessment, and the application of behavior-analytic principles in psychotherapy, education, environmental design, and public policy.
Issues related to infant intersensory functioning are reviewed. The argument is offered that limi... more Issues related to infant intersensory functioning are reviewed. The argument is offered that limitations of sensory inputs during early stages of development are necessary and provide structure and organization which determine behavioural characteristics at later stages. It is also suggested that infant organisms respond to the intensity of stimulation rather than organizational characteristics and that this is responsible for the form of sensory equivalence apparent during early development. A scheme for the investigation of sources of intersensory organization is presented which involves a prospective analysis of how consideration of the times of onset of sensory functions helps us to understand intra-and intersensory development. The advantages of this experimental approach arc outlined.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Mar 1, 1990
Pigeons were given a choice between two identical-duration situations (terminal links of chain sc... more Pigeons were given a choice between two identical-duration situations (terminal links of chain schedules). One terminal link of the choice pair provided two food deliveries, and the other provided five. The exact times of these food deliveries differed between the terminal links and were varied over conditions. A single response during the initial link gave immediate access to the corresponding terminal link. Forced trials, during which only one of the initial-link keys was lighted, were interspersed with choice trials during which both initial-link keys were lighted. Choice tended to favor whichever terminal link was correlated with the higher sum of the immediacies (i.e., the sum of the reciprocals of the delays to each of the reinforcers following the choice, with all delays measured from the choice). Latencies on forced trials and on choice trials also were related (negatively) to the sum of the immediacies. This correlation among response measures (choice and latencies) suggests that both measures are manifestations of the effect of conditioned reinforcement on response tendencies.
This contribution looks into logos as a powerful designing tool which can promote the implementat... more This contribution looks into logos as a powerful designing tool which can promote the implementation of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) policy. Given the lack of universal logo which would communicate the RES-derived products and services effectively, we initially explored the public's emotions, thoughts, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs and attitudes towards RES and non-RES through their design illustration. Experts decoded a total of 769 RES and 737 non-RES designs of four different sample groups ranging from the less informed children to well-informed engineers, and defined the design variables of a RES logo. On the basis of these design guidelines, professional designers created 60 RES logos. Besides, 432 participants randomly selected evaluated the logos on a score scale from 1 to 6. Interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and semiotic analysis of the winner logo revealed that in order to promote the RES use, a logo should be of round shape; present a sense of movement; convey a clear positive message; embed natural elements in the composition of the image with various hues of green, white and yellow-orange colours; include visually acute, religious and cultural symbols, and carry connotations of personal and social responsibility. This is the first attempt of designing a RES logo with public participation.
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Papers by Robert Mellon