Individual Behavioral Responses Research Articles

Individual Behavioral Response Mediates Endocrine Changes Induced by Social Interactiona.

Individual Behavioral Response Mediates Endocrine Changes Induced by Social Interactiona.

Creeping Universalism in the Welfare State: Evidence from Australia

ABSTRACTThere are good reasons to suppose that the non-poor will infiltrate welfare programmes originally targeted on the poor. This paper discusses this phenomenon of ‘creeping universalisation’ and provides a number of possible explanations for it. Evidence is used from Australia to show that creeping universalisation does indeed occur, and to test the competing explanations. It is concluded that the most likely explanation for the phenomenon is individual behavioural responses: that is, the non-poor respond to the imposition of a means-test by re-arranging their affairs, legitimately or illegitimately, so as to pass the test.

The Current Dilemma in the Treatment of Mild Hypertension

A number of trials evaluating drug treatment of mild hypertension are reviewed. Overall benefits and disadvantages of such treatment are discussed. In view of limited benefits of drug treatment and considerable disadvantages of side-effects, the need to evaluate non-pharmacological methods of blood pressure control is emphasized. Some of these methods are not directly aimed at the level of blood pressure but at the physiological and behavioural responses of individuals to their environments and their lifestyles. The evidence so far suggests that more holistic modes of life go a long way towards normalizing blood pressure

Estrogen treatment increases the oral component of apomorphine-induced stereotypy

Twelve weeks after surgery, sham operated intact and ovariectomized (OVX) female rats were treated for 3 days with either estradiol benzoate (50 μg/kg per day) or the oil vehicle. They were then tested for apomorphine-induced stereotypy 24 or 72 h after the last steroid injection. The data was collected and analysed in terms of both stereotypy ratings and individual behavioural responses. Estradiol, in those animals tested 72 h after estrogen, increased the frequency of oral behaviour in intact and in OVX groups. One possible explanation for the results is that estradiol may exert an anti-dopaminergic effect in the nigrostriatal system.

Anti-predator adaptations in a neustonic insect (Velia caprai).

The risk of a Velia caprai (Heteroptera: Veliidae) individual to fall victim to brown trout (Salmo trutta) was demonstrated experimentally to be markedly lower when several bugs were simultaneously exposed to the trout. V. caprai was found distasteful to brown trout, and a high proportion was ejected alive after being captured. We suggest that school formation in V. caprai lowers the risk of predation because frequent predator-prey encounters may assist in retention of the avoidance learned by the predator. Individual behavioural responses to attacks were variable and the frequency of expansion skating and thanatosis was temperature dependent. Thanatosis postures were either symmetric with the legs pressed to the body or irregular.

Changes in Behavioral Ratings of Depressed Children Treated with Imipramine

This paper presents the results of an open clinical trial of imipramine treatment of children meeting research criteria for depression. Significant differences between predrug and imipramine treatment on systematically collected observations employing a standardized, reliable instrument were found, particularly in the areas of conceptual dysfunction, incongruous behavior, lethargy/dejection, perceptual dysfunction, and the total score. The individual behavioral responses from high dose imipramine treatment and their significance for future study are discussed.

SIMULATING FOOD SHOPPERS' ECONOMIC LOSSES AS A RESULT OF SUPERMARKET UNAVAILABILITY*

AbstractThis study illustrates a methodology as a first step toward the development of a benefit/cost model for the evaluation of the Federal Trade Commission regulation of the unavailability of advertised specials in food stores. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to estimate economic losses to shoppers from unavailable advertised specials. Product unavailability in the model occurred as a result of alternative managerial decisions about purchase‐order quantities for advertised specials and shelf‐stocking policies combined with probabilistic purchase decisions by customers. The model generated probabilistic individual customer and management behavioral responses to unavailability during a one‐year time period. As a result, the derived economic losses to customers from unavailability were based on alternative assumptions about managerial behavior in conjunction with empirically derived shopper responses to advertised specials. This study thus provides some idea of the amount of damages being caused by the excessive unavailability of advertised specials. Aggregate customer losses were found to vary primarily with respect to management's purchase‐order quantity of advertised specials.

Rating the Movies

Observers of and participants in the motion picture industry have for years looked for a formula that explains and predicts the ingredients that lure crowds to the movies. The study reported here examines the intuitively appealing notion that by labeling something as forbidden fruit, its attractiveness increases. The theoretic lens used in this study is Brehm’s concept of psychological reactance which focuses on the specific motivational and behavioral response of individuals for whom a given freedom (e.g., movie attendance) has been threatened or eliminated. The Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) film rating system, by assigning R and X ratings to pictures, can be viewed as a means by which movies are deemed forbidden. One could reasonably suspect that this concept of forbidden fruit is plainly apparent to film producers. If this concept is in fact accurate, then producers might be motivated to try to have more restrictive ratings assigned to their pictures (perhaps by adding gratuitous violence, sex, nudity or language). Thus, the research questions this study addresses are: 1) For the first ten years the MPAA film rating system has been in effect, is there a tendency for more R and X rated pictures to be produced? 2) Are there significant differences between the assignment of film ratings for Major-Minor producers and Independents for this time period? 3) Is there a tendency for significantly more R and X pictures to become top-grossing films? This paper will present a broad, and necessarily cursory, overview of selected explanations regarding motives for movie attendance (I), a brief discussion of the MPAA’s film rating system (11), a review of reactance theory (111), and responses to the three research questions (IV).

Individual behavioral responses to hypothalamic stimulation persist despite destruction of tissue surrounding electrode tip

Behavior evoked by hypothalamic stimulation differs among animals, although their electrode placements appear histologically to be identical. These differences have been attributed to selective activation of functionally discrete neural circuits that are in close proximity. We report here, however, that in rats initially exhibiting “stimulus-bound” drinking, this behavior persists following either a series of progressively larger lesions, or a single large lesion, around the electrode tips. Similar results were obtained in rats afforded minimal stimulation experience prior to the lesions. These results suggest that individual differences in response to hypothalamic stimulation cannot be attributed solely to variations in the neuroanatomical locus of stimulation.

Objective job difficulty, behavioural response, and sector characteristics in air route traffic control centres.

Abstract Two thousand observations on 47 radar sectors in Boston and New York were used to determine the principal behavioural stressors in the air traffic control environment. Predictor variables included peak traffic. mean airspeed, sector area, sector type, radio-communication time, and theoretically derived control load factors. Expert observers rated the degree of activity and behavioural arousal of ATCs working the 47 radar sectors at the same time the objective measures were made. These ‘pace’ ratings were significantly related to peak traffic count and duration of radio-communications. The control load factors were not related to behavioural responses. Statistical analyses indicated several refinements for the definition and measurement of the control load factors, For example, airspace control load was reliably estimated by sector type and number of transitioning planes, while co-ordination control load was most appropriately estimated by duration of radio-communications These results suggested that estimations of workload may be made by a relatively few objective measures, and that at least one estimate of individual's behavioural responses, i.e.. pace ratings, can be predicted by peak traffic counts.

Characteristics of the individual child's behavioral responses to the environment.

Characteristics of the individual child's behavioral responses to the environment.