The incidence of obesity, defined as a BMI [body mass index] of over 30, has increased by 50% in the past 20 years (Carlson, 2004). Some notable behavioral differences as a function of weight have been identified, including the findings that individuals with obesity participate less often in physical activities, and spend more time engaging in sedentary behaviors. Using a daily-dairy assessment method as completed by undergraduate college students (n=99), the current study examined the impact of BMI on the duration of time spent and pleasure experienced within 13 behavioral domains: 1) Social, 2) Physical, 3) Health/Hygiene, 4) Spiritual, 5) Educational, 6) Sedentary, 7) Sexual, 8) Employment or Volunteering, 9) Hobbies and Recreation, 10) Eating Alone 11) Eating with Others, 12) Travel, and 13) Other. Controlling for depression, anxiety, and locus of control, both univariate and multivariate statistics suggested non-significant relationships between BMI and duration and reward level of behaviors. Study limitations and future directions are discussed.

Child aggression is often categorized by the motivation behind the behavior, namely proactive and reactive aggression. Proactive aggression is goal oriented in nature whereas reactive aggression is in response to a perceived threat. There is some evidence to suggest that these subtypes are associated with distinct behavioral and psychological problems, with proactive aggression being associated with delinquency and reactive aggression being associated with depression. However, the behavioral and psychological correlates of these subtypes of aggression are not one to one relations and little research has examined the variables that impact these relations. This is a notable omission in the literature, as it is important to examine factors that influence these associations in order to identify targets for interventions. Parents play a role in the socialization process and are often targeted for intervention efforts. Accordingly, the current study examined the potential moderating effects of parenting behavior (i.e., corporal punishment, parental monitoring and positive parenting) on the associations between aggression subtypes and delinquency and depression. Participants include 69 children ranging from 9-12 (M=10.35, SD=1.16) years of age and their primary caregiver. First order effects indicated that proactive aggression is associated with delinquency. Only monitoring was found to moderate this relation; however this association was not in the expected direction. That is, proactive aggression was only associated with delinquency at low levels of poor monitoring. The first order effects model of depression indicated a marginally statistically significant association between reactive aggression and depression. However none of the parenting variables were found to moderate the relation between reactive aggression and depression.

Interpersonal violence has been identified as one of our nation’s most important public health concerns and has been empirically linked with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In order to better understand the relationship between PTSD and violence, we used Chemtob’s (1997) Survival Mode model to examine the role of two potentially important proximal factors linking PTSD to violence; cognitive attributions and negative affect. Congruent with theory and previous research, we hypothesized that PTSD would be related to aggression, and that cognitive attributions and negative affect would moderate the relationship between these variables. Undergraduate students (N = 628) completed an online screening study to assess PTSD symptomatology. Based on screening results, 99 participants were recruited and categorized as having elevated PTSD symptomatology (High-PTSD) or minimal symptomatology (Low-PTSD). Eligible participants completed questionnaires assessing trauma history, psychopathology, attitudes towards violence, and history of violent behavior. Participants then completed the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP), a lab-based behavioral measure of aggression, in which participants competed against a confederate and had points subtracted on a pre-programmed interval schedule. After completing this task, participants completed measures assessing negative affect and attributions experienced during the PSAP procedure. Results demonstrate that High-PTSD participants engaged in significantly more aggressive responding on the PSAP than did Low-PTSD participants. Further, High- PTSD participants reported more negative affect than did low-PTSD participants, and a trend approaching significance suggested that High-PTSD participants tended to make more negative intent attributions regarding confederates’ behavior than did low-PTSD participants. Contrary to our hypotheses, findings revealed that negative affect and attributions were unrelated to aggressive responding and did not moderate the relationship between PTSD symptomatology and aggressive responding. It is possible that the retrospective reporting of negative affect and attributions limited the ability to detect moderation effects in the present study. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research is called for in order to better explicate the complex relationship between PTSD symptomatology and aggression.

The proposed project examined the temporal association between three forms of angry affect and dating violence among a sample of college students using electronic daily diary assessment methodology. It was hypothesized that the odds of dating violence would be greater on days of angry affect relative to days of no angry affect. It was also hypothesized that relevant distal variables would moderate this association, although examination of the direction of such effects was exploratory in nature. Participants were 184 men and women attending a large university in Tennessee. Participants completed a baseline survey packet assessing distal variables. They were also trained to answer daily surveys indicating whether angry affect (irritable, angry, and hostile) and dating violence occurred (verbal, physical and sexual) on the prior day and whether the angry affect immediately preceded seeing their partner. Surveys were completed daily for a period of two months. Results indicated that younger age, shorter length of relationship, lower relationship satisfaction, greater psychopathology, greater past perpetration of IPV, and more favorable attitudes toward violence were associated with greater odds of IPV. In addition, findings revealed that an increase in proximal irritable affect was associated with greater odds of verbal and sexual aggression, while an increase in proximal angry affect was associated with greater odds of verbal and physical aggression. Most notably, our results demonstrated that the risk for violence increased exponentially as the amount of irritable or angry affect increased by each one-unit increment. This study also assessed the impact of a number of distal factors on the relationship between angry affect and IPV. Positive moderators included length of relationship, drug use, antisocial personality, borderline personality, and perpetration of past physical and sexual violence. Negative moderators included age, alcohol use, PTSD symptomatology, and perpetration of past verbal violence. These data are the first to provide evidence for the temporal relationship between angry affect and dating violence, as well as the role of distal variables on this relationship. These data have implications for the creation of relevant intervention programs targeting specific distal and proximal variables that increase risk for IPV in dating violence populations.

This study examined autonomy and relatedness in a low socioeconomic status sample of adolescent children of mothers with borderline personality disorder (BPD), compared to a normative comparison group, during a video-taped problem solving task. The interpersonal difficulties with individuation and separation within relationships that characterize BPD, may create a diathesis for psychopathology among adolescent children of women with this disorder. The parent-teen interactions were transcribed and coded using Allen, Hauser et al., (2003)’s Autonomy and Relatedness Coding System. Mothers with BPD scored significantly higher on the inhibition of autonomy and inhibition of relatedness than did comparison mothers, although no group differences were evident on promotion of autonomy and relatedness. Mothers with BPD were also more likely to employ the negative behavior of blurring, and hostility than were comparisons. Contrary to hypothesis, no significant group differences were found between the two adolescent samples, either in promotion of autonomy and relatedness, or inhibition of autonomy and relatedness. However, as hypothesized, adolescent children of women with BPD were marginally more likely to employ recanting behaviors, compared to the comparison group. Implications for the maternal-child relationship and adolescent well-being are discussed.

An observational study was conducted on a captive group of chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes to determine the overall behavior patterns, social organization, grooming relationships, and enclosure usage. Adolescence is a very dynamic time for young males and new group dynamics were expected to occur. The aim of the study was to investigate any shifting of social bonds among the group members and changes in the ranks of the two adolescent males. The two adolescent males (Lu and Mugsy) should have been demonstrating dominance behaviors towards the females, towards each other, and exhibiting sexual behaviors. Due to the unique group composition and the handrearing/ peer-rearing background ofthe males, this study also attempted to assess ifthe males of the group expressed species and sex-specific behaviors characteristic of healthy, socially capable male chimpanzees. A variety of behaviors were examined to determine interindividual relationships and to predict which male will be the next alpha individual; however, due to the low frequency of occurrence of dominance and submissive behaviors, proximity and grooming data were the primary behavioral measures. The data revealed that the males did not exhibit behaviors characteristic of their age and sex. The group remained in a stable state throughout the observation period with no observable status striving behaviors. Overall activity levels were low, with each group member having been stationary for 50%-68% of the observable time. The males did not exhibit sexual behaviors or interest in grooming the females while they were in swell. The group distributed nearly equal amounts of grooming to each male and both males spent nearly equal amounts of time in proximity to other members of the group. Mugsy, however, groomed others significantly more than Lu. Based on previous research, those that groom others more tend to be subordinate. The grooming data analyses determined the group's hierarchical structure to be Debbie < Kerry < Julie < Lu < Mugsy. The data also indicated that Lu is likely to be the next alpha individual when Debbie's status declines as she continues to age. Enclosure usage varied for the males and the females of the group. The patterns of enclosure usage replicated the natural fission-fusion social structure found in wild chimpanzees. The females were found to distribute the majority of their time near the waterfall/second viewing area and the males distributed their time near the first and second viewing area. Although the males and females were most often in separate groups, occasionally they were observed in one group moving through the enclosure or foraging and feeding together. Overall, this captive group of chimpanzees did not demonstrate behavior characteristic oftheir sex and age. A variety of factors may have contributed to the observed behavior patterns, such as the lack of mixed-ages for each sex, lack of adult male role models, hand/peer-rearing of the adolescent males, and the presence of a strong female coalition; however, this study could not distinguish among these factors.

The role of large pitch contrasts in meter perception of three-pulse-train polyrhythms was investigated. Subjects were presented with several polyrhythmic configurations having both small and large pitch contrasts and were asked to tap the meter, or beat. Some subjects preferred meters based on the lower-pitch and slowerprogressing pulse trains, while others preferred unit-based meters. Results revealed that three-pulse-train polyrhythms with large pitch contrast do not result in notably different meter perceptions from those with smaller pitch contrast. These results support previous findings which showed that meter is determined by multiple factors, such as pulse-train pitch and relative pulse-train tempo.

The reinforcement process as it applies to learning theory has been the subject of an increasing amount of attention in recent years. This attention is reflected in the controversial question of whether or not reinforcement is a necessary condition for learning and it is reflected even more so, for those who adopt an affirmative position on the question, in their attempt to demonstrate the relationship between reinforcement and learning. Whatever the bias of the theorist there has been an overall concern with making more explicit the reinforcement process. With regard to this latter problem we find several points of view as to the nature of reinforcement. This paper will deal primarily with an attempt to present experimental evidence of the second variety mentioned above, that is, to demonstrate learning in the presence of increased stimulation while ruling out the possibility of drive reduction.

Various empirically validated theories have explained the phenomenon of women in abusive relationships engaging in a repeated leave/return cycle when trying to terminate the relationship. The current study was designed to add to the already existing theories that focus on factors constraining women to stay in abusive relationships by evaluating the relationship between traumatic bond, forgiveness, and intention to return to the abusive relationship, and by evaluating the relationship between traumatic bond, attachment to abusive partner, and intention to return. The current sample consisted of 121 women residing in both urban and rural emergency domestic violence shelters. Forgiveness was found to partially mediate the relationship between traumatic bond and intention to return, and traumatic bond mediated the relationship between preoccupied attachment to the abusive partner and intention to return to the abusive relationship. These findings suggest that in this specific population it is important to not only address constraint variables (e.g., income, employment, child care, etc.), but to also address variables regarding the individual‟s emotional attachment to the relationship. Addressing these variables could be important new and additional points of intervention for women living in emergency domestic violence shelters.

The effects of interparental conflict upon offspring‟s own relationships and marriages have been well-documented and current research has narrowed its focus to the examination of the mediators and moderators of this transmission of relational patterns across generations. Two hundred and thirty-nine undergraduate participants completed measures assessing their perceptions of their parents‟ conflict, social cognitions about relationships, their communication patterns in their relationships, and their current relationship satisfaction. Results showed that offspring‟s attitudes toward marriage mediated the relationship between interparental conflict and offspring‟s current relationship satisfaction, even while accounting for communication patterns in relationships. Further, it was found that attitudes toward marriage mediated the relationship between interparental conflict resolution and offspring‟s current relationship satisfaction, again, while controlling for communication patterns. Results emphasized the unique impact of social cognitions in relationships, and in addition, the powerful effects of observing parental conflict resolution for offspring, as it may reinforce positive view of marital relationships that offspring might then apply to their own relationships. Limitations and directions for future research are addressed.