Aggressive Signaling in New World Warblers

In many animal species, communication can enable individuals to resolve conflict without the high potential costs involved in direct fighting. During contests, animals may exchange information about their aggressive motivational state. A central question throughout the study of animal communication research has been whether animal signals convey reliable information, and this question has been particularly relevant to communication during conflicts where the evolutionary interests of competitors directly oppose. Deceptive signaling of aggressive motivation would be highly favored by natural selection because it could allow individuals to gain access to resources they might not gain through direct combat. However, selection should also favor signal recipients to respond only to informative signals, and therefore only reliable signals are expected to be maintained over evolutionary time. Due to methodological limitations, there has been a lack of empirical research that has appropriately assessed the reliability of aggressive signals. In my dissertation, I seek to identify animal signals with potentially aggressive content, and to assess whether such signals do indeed reliably convey information about aggressive motivation. To do this, I combined both observational and experimental approaches focusing on vocal signaling in a clade of songbirds, the New World warblers, and in particular the black-throated blue warbler (Setophaga caerulescens). First, I asked how black-throated blue warblers use their vocal repertoires across different social contexts, and especially across contexts that vary in intensity of conflict, with the goal of identifying potentially important vocal signal features involved in aggressive escalation. I found that black-throated blue warbler songs fall into two acoustically distinct categories of song types, called type I and type II songs. The use of type II songs relative to type I songs increased with increasing intensity of agonistic interactions, especially during early stages of aggressive escalation. I also found that low-amplitude versions of songs (soft songs) were strongly associated with close range vocal interactions and were frequently produced just prior to fights. These results suggest that soft songs might convey information about a highly aggressive state, and that type II songs play a role in aggressive escalation. Next, I applied a recently developed experimental approach to ask whether signal features reliably predict subsequent aggressive behavior such as an attack by the signal sender. I conducted experimental trials in which subjects were provoked by playback of rivals’ signals, their vocal responses were documented, and then they were presented with a taxidermic model that could be attacked. I found that the use of soft song was an extremely reliable predictor of whether birds would subsequently attack the model. I then extended this approach to ask whether sequences of signals used during aggressive escalation might convey increasing levels of aggressive motivation. I simulated interactions that gradually increased in intensity by presenting subjects with two sequential and increasing levels of threat. I found that the use of type II song in response to the low threat level predicted later use of soft song in response to the high threat level, and that soft song, in turn, predicted attack of the model. These results provide evidence that animal signals not only reliably convey motivation to attack, but can also convey motivation to escalate to more intense stages of signaling. Next, I asked how generally these patterns of aggressive signaling might apply to other warbler species, and how aggressive signals might vary across species in this clade. I conducted experimental trials to identify signals that reliably predict future attack in two additional warbler species, the ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus), and the American redstart (Setophaga ruticilla), and compared findings to those obtained for black-throated blue warblers. I found that in all three species, the use of soft song reliably predicted future attack. Additionally, in ovenbirds, use of a non-song call, and in American redstarts the use of shortened songs and postural displays, were also reliable predictors of attack. These findings show an underlying commonality in reliable aggressive signaling among the three species, as well as species-specific diversity, and provide insights into processes of aggressive signal evolution. Finally, I conclude my dissertation by providing evidence that when aggressive interactions in songbirds do escalate to combat, such fighting can be costly and potentially fatal. I describe an observation where a male black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) appeared to kill another male during a competitive interaction. The two opponents were both high-ranking males, consistent with the prediction that mortal combat is most likely to occur between evenly matched individuals

POTENTIAL PITFALLS IN RENEWABLE RESOURCE DECISION MAKING THAT UTILIZES CONVEX COMBINATIONS OF DISCRETE ALTERNATIVES

Decision makers in renewable resource planning are often unable to specify their objective function a priori, and are presented with a discrete set of alternatives reflecting a range of options that are actually much more continuous. It is common for the decision maker to be interested in some other alternative than those originally developed. An iterative process thus often takes place between decision maker an analyst as they search for a satisfactory alternative. This paper analyzes the economic tenability of simply interpolating (taking convex combinations of) initial alternatives to generate new alternatives in this process. It is shown that convex combinations of outputs will be producible (feasible) with the interpolated input levels, under very common conditions. In fact, the cost estimate resulting from interpolating the cost of two (or more) alternatives will generally be an overestimate. The magnitude of this overestimate is investigated in a test case. It is concluded that this cost overestimate can be rather large, and is not systematically predictable. Only when the output sets in the original alternatives are very similar are the interpolated cost estimates fairly accurate.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Mental Health Stigma - Impact and Interventions

Research shows that negative stereotyping leads to social stigmatization of those with mental illness resulting in self-stigmatization, lower self-esteem, diminished self-efficacy, and limited access to social support and mental health services for those with mental illness. Few studies have been conducted to identify who is most predisposed to be supportive of those with mental illness and who may be willing to advocate for greater access to services. The purpose of this study is to clarify who is most open to support and advocate for those with mental illness. Responses from a sample of 48 volunteer college students to a researcher-developed survey of attitudes towards mental illness were analyzed to determine which demographic factors were related to more accepting attitudes of those with mental illness. Results yielded significant main effects for gender F (1, 47) = 5.49, p \u3c .05, and for those who have a relative with a mental illness, F (1, 47) = 17.82, p \u3c .01. Results suggest that females and relatives of those with mental illness are more accepting and could be targeted to help reduce mental health stigma by advocating for, and serving as allies to, those with mental illnesses

CONCEPTS INFLUENCING ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS TOWARD MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN A TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM

There is an expectation for in-service teachers, current teachers in the field, in primary and secondary schools to be skilled in teaching strategies and behavior management. There is a growing need for teachers also to be skilled in recognizing mental health concerns in their students. Schools are becoming acutely aware that in-service teachers are not adequately prepared in this area, and therein lies a dual responsibility to also prepare college students enrolled in teacher education programs, who will be referred to as pre-service teachers, with skills that will equip them to be supportive of students with mental health needs. This study sought to find out if there were common concepts or factors that would describe how willing a pre-service teacher would be to seek or recommend mental health services for a peer. There were 151 students enrolled in teacher education programs from one Midwestern university in the United States who volunteered to participate in this study. The research design was organized in multiple stages. The data collected were processed through an exploratory factor analysis and once the factors were found, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was further completed to explore the relationship between such factors and the decision whether to seek or recommend mental health services. The results indicated that comfort, resistance, and environment were significant factors. The comfort factor has dominant influence over the participants’ decision whether to seek or recommend mental health services. The task ahead for primary and secondary schools, and higher education institutions, is to create programs where comfort with students with mental health needs is increased, to increase awareness of the mental health resources available in the community, as well as to decrease the resistance factors

Comprehensive School Guidance Programs in Nebraska: Implications for Rural Schools

Archival data from an in-state survey of 428 elementary and secondary school counselors completed by the Nebraska Department of Education regarding comprehensive guidance programs was reviewed for relevant information. This information is discussed relative to the current views and knowledge regarding the state of comprehensive developmental guidance and their implications for school counselors and administrators

Addiction Counseling Practice Competencies and Curriculum in CACREP-Accredited Programs

Addiction counseling is a growing field with emerging practice competencies and standards that have implications for counselor education programs. This study examined addiction counseling practice competencies and curriculum elements in CACREP-accredited programs to determine curriculum and program needs. A survey of 62 CACREP programs found that programs are including addiction counseling content into the curriculum, employing faculty who have experience in addiction counseling, and addressing the skill practice competency by adding increased credit hours in addiction counseling and teaching from a didactic and constructivist pedagogy. Recommendations are made to align addiction counseling training curriculum, including adding an addiction counseling specialization track that incorporates practice experiences

Title IX and the Cleary Act: What Counselor Educators Must Know

Because of the far-reaching legal, monetary, academic, and public relations ramifications of the sex abuse scandal at Pennsylvania State University, campus administrators are reviewing and more strictly enforcing the mandatory reporting requirements of Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments and the Clery Act related to sexual harassment and sexual violence. This creates challenges in didactic and clinical coursework for counselor educators who must balance adhering to university reporting guidelines with the ethical responsibilities to provide informed consent and maintain confidentially of information disclosed by students and their clients during training. Issues involved for counselor educators and student counselors-in-training, the process of securing appropriate exceptions to mandatory reporting, and a sample exception policy are presented

The Use of Social Media in Counselor Education

Examined in this article are ways the use of social media can enhance a counselor education program’s activities in the areas of recruitment, curriculum, pedagogy, extracurricular student contact, and alumni connections. Also discussed are privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, boundary, copyright, liability, and free speech issues related to the administrative and instructional use of social media in a counselor education program. A social media policy is proposed to help counselor educators use this potent tool ethically and effectively

A Qualitative Analysis of Counseling Students\u27 Thoughts, Attitudes, and Beliefs about Addition Counseling and Treatment

An estimated 21.7 million people need treatment for their substance use problem. As barriers to treatment are removed with health care reform, this number will continue to grow. Simultaneous to this need for treatment, a workforce crisis is occurring in the addiction counseling field due to high turnover rates, an aging workforce, worker shortages, and lingering stigma about substance abuse. Given this climate, counselor education programs are challenged to develop programs that adequately train future counselors to address the unique needs of clients who are struggling with addiction and to better understand how students construct their knowledge regarding addictions and addiction counseling. The purpose of this study was to explore and qualitatively examine the development of counseling students’ thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs about addiction and treatment that may help educators understand how to better design addiction counseling curriculum to address attitude and self-awareness competencies. Themes identified in the study are explored as well as the implications for counselor educators

A Comparison of the Use of the Antisocial and Borderline Personality Disorder Scales in the MCMI-III and Personality Assessment Inventory with a Criminal Justice Population

The present study compared outcome measurements on the Antisocial and Borderline scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) with those on the Milion Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III) when both were used with a criminal justice population. Significant positive correlations were found between the Antisocial scales on the PAI and MCMI-III, as well as between the Borderline scales of both assessments, indicating that in an evaluation process it would be sufficient to use only one assessment. It is suggested that the MCMI-III is the better option to save costs and time while preserving the clinical accuracy of the testing protocol for use with a criminal justice population to make appropriate treatment recommendations