High Rates Of Behavior Research Articles

Offspring of mothers with bipolar disorder: a systematic review considering personality features.

Objective:To examine personality/temperament features and mental health vulnerability in offspring of mothers with bipolar disorders (BD), including dimensions which may impact psychological characteristics or therapeutic measures.Methods:A systematic review, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, was conducted to search for original articles that investigated personality/temperament features of offspring of women with BD and emotional factors involved in the mother-child relationship. The electronic search was performed in the PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO databases from February 2010 to February 2017.Results:Ten quantitative studies were included in the analysis: seven from the United States, two from Brazil, and one from Canada. The narrative synthesis was categorized into three dimensions: 1) reliability of instruments for prediction of future psychopathology in offspring; 2) environmental risk factors for offspring; and 3) early interventions. The findings showed impairments in the offspring’s lives, high rates of behavior and temperament problems, and psychiatric disorders.Conclusion:BD is a frequent psychiatric disorder, and the offspring of mothers with this condition are exposed to complex family relationships and psychosocial difficulties. If they are to ensure a good provision of mental health and psychosocial care to this unique population, early interventions must not neglect their contextual specificities.Systematic review registration:PROSPERO CRD-42017039010

A comparison of HIV risk practices among unprotected sex-seeking older and younger men who have sex with other men

Purpose: In recent years, much attention has been devoted to understanding the HIV risk behaviors of younger men who have sex with men (MSM). Recent data suggest that HIV is becoming an increasing problem for older adults, but little attention has been devoted to understanding their HIV risk behaviors or the factors that underlie their risk taking. This study provides a comparison of these issues among younger and older MSM. Methods: The data come from a subset of younger (ages 18–39, n = 113) and older (ages 50+, n = 109) men participating in a national study of 332 men who use the Internet to find other men for unprotected sex. Men were sampled randomly from 16 websites. Data were collected via telephone interviews conducted in 2008 and 2009. Results: Younger and older men reported comparable involvement in HIV risk, including involvement in unprotected sex, proportion of sex acts involving internal ejaculation, number of times having anonymous sex, and number of times having multiple-partner sex. Generally speaking, the factors underlying the risk practices of younger and older men were quite different (e.g. self-esteem and condom use self-efficacy for younger men, versus HIV serostatus and depression for older men). Conclusions: Older MSM using the Internet to find partners for unprotected sex engage in high rates of behaviors that place them at risk for contracting or transmitting HIV. They were just as likely as their younger counterparts to practice these behaviors. The factors “fueling” involvement in risk generally differ for older and younger men, thereby warranting the development of age-specific HIV interventions that can take into account the unique life circumstances and needs of older MSM.

Research trends in descriptive analysis.

Descriptive analysis involves the direct observation of target behavior in natural (or naturalistic) contexts to gather information on contiguous and potentially relevant environmental events, in the absence of experimental manipulation. That is, descriptive analyses identify events that are correlated with the occurrence of some target response. Descriptive analysis is commonly used as a part of a comprehensive functional assessment of problem behavior, prior to conducting an experimental functional analysis. Several advantages of descriptive analysis have been noted in the literature. First, because descriptive analyses involve direct observation of behavior in the natural environment, they provide a means to gather baseline rates of problem behavior. These rates may be useful to determine treatment efficacy once an intervention is developed and implemented. Second, the direct observation aspect of descriptive analyses may be useful in developing operational definitions of behavior, rather than relying on verbal report of caregivers. Third, descriptive analyses may be helpful in identifying particular antecedents or consequences to incorporate into functional analyses. For example, certain functional analysis conditions may be added or omitted based on the common antecedent and consequent conditions observed in the natural environment. Fourth, it has been argued that descriptive analysis may be used as an assessment procedure when functional analyses are not possible due to the nature of the target behavior (e.g., extremely low rate or dangerous problem behavior). However, the use of descriptive analysis as a sole means of ascribing function to behavior is not recommended. This is because the complexity of the natural environment makes it difficult to determine which events are functionally related to the target behavior. Other potential negative aspects of using descriptive analysis to determine the function of the behavior have also been noted including the amount of time and complex data analysis necessary for a complete assessment, the correlational nature of the data, and poor validity outcomes reported in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of a variety of research areas in descriptive analysis, including suggestions of when descriptive analyses can and should be used. In addition, possible future areas of research using descriptive analysis will be discussed. Descriptive Analysis Techniques Several variations of direct observation techniques have been presented in the literature. The particular technique used affects the data presentation as well as the information that can be gleaned from the data analysis. For this reason, a brief description of the most commonly used techniques will be provided. The first technique is the scatter plot analysis, first described by Touchette, MacDonald and Langer (1985). A scatter plot analysis involves a grid data sheet with time intervals listed vertically (e.g., 30-minute intervals) and days of the week listed horizontally. The time intervals can be individually determined based on the particular individual's schedule. Caregivers record the frequency of behavior throughout the day by appropriately marking the boxes of the grid. For example, the nonoccurrence of behavior may be represented by leaving the box blank, low-rates of behavior may be represented by filling in the box with hatch marks, and high-rates of behavior may be represented by filling in the box. Data from scatter plots are typically expressed in terms of percent of intervals with the target behavior. After several days or weeks of data collection, it may be possible to observe patterns of behavior which can be tied to specific activities or times of the day. The advantages of scatter plot analyses may include ease of data collection and estimates of the occurrence of behavior both before and after intervention. Yet, few research studies have used scatter plot analyses, and when they have been conducted, there have been mixed results. …

Genetic differences in the operant rate-depressant effects of ethanol between four inbred mouse strains

The use of genetically defined populations in studies of ethanol on schedule-controlled behavior can help determine genetically underlying responses to ethanol as well as the role of environmental constraints in the expression of gene effects. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the rate-depressant effects of ethanol in four inbred mouse strains, A/J, CBA/J, C3H/HeJ and DBA/2J. Ethanol dose-dependently decreased high rates of behavior maintained by fixed-ratio responding for study in all four strains. In general, DBA/2J mice were the least sensitive to the rate-depressant effects of ethanol, with an A/J averaging 19.29% greater than the other three inbred strains. The results of this experiment demonstrate that genetic factors play a role in determining responsitivity to even a complex learned behavioral sequence such as lever press responding with a fixed ratio schedule, and that sensitivity to the effects of ethanol on fixed-ratio responding for water is not genetically related to acute narcotic effects or reinforcing effects of ethanol.

The psychopharmacological basis of nicotine's differential effects on behavior: individual subject variability in the rat.

Nicotine, the presumed active pharmacological agent in tobacco, produces variable effects on behavior that are at best described as "paradoxical" in nature. Thus, nicotine, via tobacco use in humans or nicotine administration in experimental animals, tends to transpose behavior depending on predrug baseline rates of behavior. High rates of behavior appear to be reduced, while low rates of behavior appear to be increased by nicotine. This work further proposes that nicotine's variable effects on behavior may be related to its capacity to act as a behavioral agonist and/or antagonist via its ability either to activate or to desensitize distinct central nicotinic acetylcholinergic receptors (nAChR's). Nicotine is portrayed as a neuronal modulating agent that can affect behavior contingent upon the genetic makeup of the individual subject being studied. Depending on the structure, function, and location of distinct nAChR's, nicotine appears to be able to induce a wide range of behavioral effects important to the tobacco user. However, this does not rule out the role the importance that other biogenic amine systems (i.e., serotonin or dopamine) may have in the genetics of tobacco use or nicotine's variable effects on behavior.

Operant rate depressant effects of ethanol in mice selectively bred for differential neurosensitivity to ethanol.

Few studies have investigated genetic differences in the effects of ethanol on operant schedule-controlled behaviors. The use of genetically defined populations in sensitive measures of complex behavior can help determine genetically covarying responses to ethanol as well as environmental contexts important for demonstrating genetic differences. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the rate depressant effects of ethanol on two lines of mice selectively bred for increased, LS/Ibg (LS), and decreased, SS/Ibg (SS), sensitivity to the acute narcotic effects of ethanol. Ethanol dose-dependently decreased high rates of behavior maintained by fixed ratio responding for water in both the LS and SS mice. Interestingly, the LS and SS mice did not differ in the rate depressant effects of ethanol under these conditions despite the sensitivity of this measure to the CNS effects of drugs and the very large differences between these lines in sensitivity to numerous other ethanol-related effects. While the SS mice were slightly less sensitive, and LS mice tended to show a low dose rate increasing effect, none of the differences were significant as ED50 values for rate depression differed by only 2.5 percent. The results of this experiment demonstrate that sensitivity to the effects of ethanol on fixed ratio responding for water is not genetically related to the acute narcotic effects of ethanol. In addition, the findings show that previously reported differences in operant ethanol self-administration between these two lines of mice are not due to differential sensitivity to the direct effects of ethanol on reinforced behavior.

Accuracy of observational data with whole interval, partial interval, and momentary time-sampling recording techniques

The purpose of the study was to compare the accuracies obtained from whole interval, partial interval, and momentary time-sample recording procedures. Two types of accuracies were defined. Between-methods accuracy is the degree to which an observer using a particular recording method agrees with a standard using a continuous recording method. Within-methods accuracy is the degree to which an observer and a standard agree when both use the same recording method. Fifty-four undergraduate students viewed a videotape of a woman twisting her hair and recorded the occurrence or nonoccurrence of the behavior using one of the three recording methods. Tapes were divided into segments with low, intermediate, and high rates of behavior. Partial and whole interval recording obtained poorer between-methods accuracies than momentary time sampling. Results showed that whole interval and momentary time-sampling procedures yielded higher within-method accuracies than partial interval recording. Thus, momentary time-sampling recording provided the advantages of both greater representativeness and as few or fewer observer errors than whole or partial interval recording procedures. Use of the interval recording methods by researchers must be justifiable within this framework.

Operant control of attention behavior: A treatment for hyperactivity

Attention span, focus of attention, and selective attention were reinforced in a group of eight, institutionalized, hyperactive retardates. Span, focus, and selective attention were brought under operant control. Increased attention span was incompatible with the high rates of behavior usually associated with hyperactivity. Increases in focus of attention reduced distractibility while increases in selective attention improved performance on discrimination tasks. Laboratory training in span, focus, and selective attention generalized to the classroom setting. Reinforcement training in attention is a meaningful supplement to drug therapy in the treatment of hyperactive children.