Are Humans Special? Understanding Primate Social Reward Systems

A poster examining social attachment in primates

Seeking Validation and Healing: Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence Victims in Psychotherapy

The considerable personal and societal costs of domestic violence have prompted legislation regarding mandatory training in screening for the condition by health care providers. However, treatment resources are scarce. The costliest form of domestic violence, intimate partner terrorism (IPT), is characterized by power imbalance in the relationship that is enforced through psychological, emotional, physical, sexual and financial abuse (Stark, 2009). Symptoms of cluster B personality disorders (borderline, narcissistic, antisocial/psychopathic) link to patterns of abuse in perpetrators of IPT. Victims typically enter into the relationship unaware of their partner’s disorder. The onset of abuse is insidious as the perpetrator gradually undermines the victim’s self-confidence and reality testing while isolating him/her from social supports (Leedom, Geislin, & Hartoonian Almas, 2013). The abuse experience leads to anxiety, depression, PTSD, substance use disorders and stress-related physical illness. Although good evidence based therapies exist for these disorders, (cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic, among others) there is little research regarding how the presence of IPT impacts treatment. There is no evidence based therapy that specifically targets the victim syndrome. The first step in designing such a therapy, is to ascertain how and if the needs of victims of IPT are served by current community treatments. Study Objective: The objective of this study was to survey a large number of IPT victims regarding their experiences in psychotherapy in order to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses of current community therapy practices. This study used a mixed methods approach that gathered numerical data and allowed victims to describe their experiences in their own words

Removing the Stigma of Arrest: The Courts, the Legislatures and Unconvicted Arrestees

Society punishes criminal conduct by incarceration and moral condemnation. Prior to imposing sanctions for the commission of criminal acts, the accused must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in accordance with adequate procedural safeguards. Yet each year thousands of unconvicted arrestees are subjected to the same stigma which society imposes on those who are convicted because the records of all arrestees, whether convicted or not, are retained and disseminated by law enforcement agencies. This comment will first present the arrest record debate. The traditional justifications for the present system will be compared with those underlying the new approach to the treatment of unconvicted arrestees. Second, two proposed tests will be examined to determine which can satisfy the needs of both sides of the debate. Finally, state statutes and a proposed federal act will be analyzed to determine whether current or proposed statutory law can provide a realistic solution to minimize or eliminate the stigma resulting from arrest record dissemination

Numerical investigation of film cooling fluid flow and heat transfer using large eddy simulations

Large eddy simulations of film cooling from discrete holes inclined at 35° with a feeding plenum chamber are performed at a density ratio of 2 and blowing ratios from 0.5 to 2.0 in order to gauge the suitability and performance of different hole shapes. Cylindrical holes at length to diameter ratios of 1.75 and 3.5 as well as shaped holes (laterally diffused and console holes) at a length to diameter ratio of 3.5 are simulated issuing into a laminar crossflow at a Reynolds number of approximately 16,000 based on freestream velocity and hole diameter. The domain extends 15 hole diameters downstream of a single coolant hole, and periodic boundary conditions on the lateral faces of the domain are used. The results are validated in terms of the flow field and surface adiabatic effectiveness to experiments for cylindrical hole cases. Horseshoe vortices, DSSN vortices, and hairpin vortices are resolved and isolated. Jetting is found to have significant effects on effectiveness in cylindrical hole cases (with less jetting at the exit plane and better cooling performance from the longer holes) and shaped hole cases (with a laterally split jetting action occurring around a central recirculation region). The performance of the shaped holes is dramatically better than the performance of the cylindrical holes in terms of surface adiabatic effectiveness, with the console holes performing slightly better than the laterally diffused holes. In terms of aerodynamic loss, the console and cylindrical hole far outperformed the laterally diffused hole

Psychopathy: A Behavioral Systems Approach

Why do they do that? is the question theories of psychopathy should answer. Current theories of psychopathy fail to answer this question because they focus on affective and inhibitory deficits rather than on motivation. Antisocial behavior is appetitive and therefore can only be explained with a motivational theory. This chapter presents a motivational theory of psychopathy that draws on the ethological framework. The chapter answers all four questions of ethology as applied to psychopathy

The Impact of Psychopathy on the Family

Psychopathy is the amalgamation of personality disorder traits associated with criminal and other antisocial behavior. Although current theory postulates that psychopathic individuals do not form lasting bonds with others, this chapter provides ample evidence that psychopathic individuals are highly social and maintain ties over years. Psychopathic individuals have relationships with friends, co-workers, relatives, siblings, parents, romantic partners, and children. These relationships serve their social and material needs. This chapter presents all available studies to date on the friendship, filial, sibling, partnering, and parenting behavior of psychopathic individuals. The impact of psychopathic individuals on organizational and family functioning is also addressed