Conditioning Constructs: A Psychological Theory of International Negotiated Cooperation

Political psychology and social constructivism exist in an “ideational alliance” against realism; however, both have overlooked behavioral conditioning, the basis of animal learning. Through six stages situated in international negotiation behaviors, the theory of Conditioning Constructs shows how behavioral conditioning can take parties from specific to diffuse reciprocity, rationalist to constructivist cooperation, and crisis to durable peace. In stages 1, 2 and 3, parties use negotiated agreements to exit prisoner’s dilemmas, continuously reinforce cooperation during agreement implementation, and satiate to rewards as initial implementation finalizes. In stages 4, 5 and 6, parties receive fresh rewards with new negotiations, undergo intermittent reinforcement with periodic agreements thereafter, and finally attribute cooperative behavior to actor constructs. Conditioning Constructs demonstrates that agency is possible in socially constructed structures through willful participation in conditioning through negotiation; and that, while Anatol Rapoport’s tit-for-tat strategy is suited to initial cooperation, intermittent reinforcement better preserves late-stage cooperation.

It hurts but I still need it: a qualitative investigation of post-event processing in social anxiety disorder

Background:It has been proposed that both positive and negative metacognitive beliefs sustain engagement in post-event processing (PEP). However, it is unknown: (1) whether individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) actually derive the benefits from PEP that they expect; (2) if this is not the case, how their positive beliefs are maintained; and (3) if they are aware of the counterproductive effects of PEP, why they still perform PEP.Aims:To explore the phenomenology of the processes involved in PEP from the perspective of SADs, in order to address the research questions above.Method:Twenty-one participants suffering from SAD received individual semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.Results:Analysis revealed three main themes: (1) ‘Only, safe and useful way to improve myself’: SADs feel the need to improve their social performance, and they believe that PEP is the only, safe, and private way to do so, which is an underlying motive for them to do PEP; (2) ‘It hurts more than helps me’: however, through PEP, they do not seem to obtain the benefit that they expect, or only find a variety of counterproductive outcomes; (3) ‘Better safe than sorry’: they sometimes find makeshift solutions to improve their social performance during PEP, which may maintain their PEP as a form of intermittent reinforcement. They weigh up such costs and benefits, and choose to perform PEP while feeling conflicted about PEP.Conclusions:The results suggest that: (1) SADs rarely obtain the benefits from PEP that they expect; (2) their positive metacognitive beliefs are maintained by solutions they sometimes find during PEP; and (3) SADs choose to perform PEP while feeling conflicted; while PEP ironically maintains and exacerbates negative self-beliefs/images, it is the only safe and useful way to improve their social performance. These findings support and expand on the theories of PEP.

Wheel running induced by intermittent food schedules

Sixteen naïve male Wistar rats were exposed to intermittent food delivery to measure the development of schedule-induced wheel running, using fixed time (FT) 30, 60, 120, 240 and 480 s schedules, counterbalanced across animals according to a Latin square design (except under the FT 480 s, which was always presented last to complete the data set). Rats were also exposed to a massed-food control condition. Wheel running was induced in the range of 30-240 s with a gradation as a function of inter-food interval (IFI) length. The temporal distribution of wheel turns was generally presented in the form of an inverted U-shaped as IFIs progressed, showing maximum responding during the first portion of the interval. The introduction of massed-food resulted in an immediate reduction in wheel running. These results support the notion that wheel running can be schedule-induced and categorized into the so-called adjunctive behaviors. These data indicate that IFI length affects the development of schedule-induced wheel running and that the rate of wheel running is maintained by intermittent reinforcement, which are common characteristics of schedule-induced behaviors. Likewise, this idea is supported by the occurrence of a similar temporal pattern to that found with other adjunctive behaviors, such as schedule-induced polydipsia, with its maximum manifestation occurring between the beginning and middle of IFIs.