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Conditionability and Reinforcement Sensitivity in Gambling Behaviour
Full text linkModels of the antecedents of pathological gambling (PG) include the processes of classical and instrumental conditioning. After experiences with gambling, appetitive classical conditioning can lead to a learned relation between the gambling environment and excitement, and this excitement can subsequently become a conditioned positive reinforcer for continued gambling behaviour. The gambling environment can also become associated with negative feelings through the process of aversive conditioning, and these negative feelings can serve as conditioned punishment, ultimately leading to the avoidance of gambling. Gambling involves both positive reinforcement and punishment, and operates on a variable interval reinforcement schedule that makes gambling behaviour difficult to extinguish. Differences in the degree to which individuals acquire classical conditioning (conditionability), and differences in the degree to which individuals approach and respond to instrumental conditioning (reinforcement sensitivity) are understudied in relation to gambling behaviour. The studies reported in this thesis further investigated conditionability and reinforcement sensitivity in relation to gambling behaviour. The first aim was to investigate whether individual differences in differential aversive classical conditioning and reinforcement sensitivity were associated with risk-avoidance on a gambling task. The second aim was to also to include appetitive conditioning in order to investigate if aversive conditioning, appetitive conditioning and reinforcement sensitivity could explain differences in risk-taking during gambling. The third aim was to investigate whether PGs would show diminished conditionability by comparing them with a control group. Three studies were conducted in order to achieve these aims. The first study employed a differential aversive conditioning paradigm with skin conductance as the outcome measure. The results showed that a group of student participants did not show aversive conditioning, and furthermore that this group showed less risk-avoidance when gambling on the Iowa gambling task. No association was found between reinforcement sensitivity and risk-avoidance, therefore it seemed that aversive conditioning alone could contribute to explaining variation in risk-avoidance. The second study employed an evaluative conditioning paradigm where both appetitive and aversive evaluative conditioning was measured. The results showed that the student participants who did not show appetitive nor aversive conditioning showed less risk-taking on a purpose built simulated slot machine designed to be more similar to commercially available gambling products than the Iowa gambling task. Furthermore, the student participants who had low scores on both self-reported reward responsiveness and punishment sensitivity (i.e. fight-flight-freeze system) also showed less risk-taking when gambling. In the third study, a group of PGs were compared to a control group on a differential aversive classical conditioning paradigm where heart rate responses comprised the outcome variable. The results showed that the PG group showed diminished aversive conditioning compared to the control group. These results combined suggest that the effects of the processes of classical and instrumental conditioning for gambling behaviour are contingent on individuals’ conditionability and reinforcement sensitivity
Alcohol in the second half of life: do usual quantity and frequency of drinking to intoxication increase with increased drinking frequency?
Full text linkWe investigated if increased drinking frequency among adults in the second half of life co-occurred with increased usual quantity and increased intoxication frequency.
Drinking frequency, usual quantity and intoxication frequency was measured by self-report in 2002/03 and again in 2007/08. Information about gender, age and level of education was obtained from the public register. Health was collected by self-report.
Because of a significant gender × change in drinking frequency interaction effect on change in intoxication frequency (b = 0.02, P = 0.013), women and men were analysed separately. After adjusting for covariates, women who increase their drinking frequency showed a non-significant decrease in usual quantity [low initial usual quantity (LIUQ): β = -0.01, P = 0.879; high initial usual quantity (HIUQ): β = -0.06, P = 0.164] and a non-significant increase in intoxication frequency (LIUQ: β = 0.04, P = 0.569; HIUQ: β = 0.09, P = 0.251). Men who increased their drinking frequency showed a small decrease in usual quantity (LIUQ: β = -0.06, P = 0.049; HIUQ: β = -0.05, P = 0.002) and a small increase in intoxication frequency (LIUQ: β = 0.05, P = 0.035; HIUQ: β = 0.13, P = 0.004).
Among Norwegian adults in the second half of life, increased drinking frequency appears to be associated with a small reduction in usual quantity, and a small increase in frequency of drinking to intoxication
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Self-reported Mental and Physical Health Among Norwegian Adolescents Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textIndividual, Family, and Community Characteristics Associated With COVID-19–Specific Worry and Lack of Worry Among Norwegian High School Students in First Pandemic Year
Full text linkpublishedVersio
Positive and negative affectivity as risk factors for heavy drinking in the second half of life: a prospective cohort study
Full text linkSelf-reported Mental and Physical Health among Norwegian Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Full text linkImportance The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting conditions may negatively affect adolescents.
Objective To examine aspects of self-reported mental and physical health among adolescents in Norway before and during the pandemic, including the role of pandemic-associated anxiety.
Design, Setting, and Participants This cohort study examined a diverse nationwide sample of grade 11 students from the longitudinal MyLife study in Norway. The original study recruitment of all 8th, 9th, and 10th graders from the same middle schools facilitated identification of 2 sociodemographically comparable cohorts assessed in October to December 2018 and 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and October to December 2020, during the pandemic. School entry and enrollment in Norway is determined by the birth year, and students usually start high school (11th grade) during the fall of the year of their 16th birthday. Data were analyzed from March to June 2021.
Exposures The COVID-19 pandemic and associated conditions in Norway.
Main Outcomes and Measures In grades 10 and 11, adolescents reported their depression symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (cutoff scores for moderate/severe depression, ≥15), number of close friends, physical health, and organized sports participation. Cohort differences were examined with a set of nested regression models, incrementally controlling for sociodemographic covariates and grade 10 outcomes.
Results A sample of 2536 adolescents (1505 [59.4%] girls) was analyzed, including 1621 adolescents before the pandemic and 915 adolescents during the pandemic, of whom 158 adolescents (17.3%) reported high pandemic anxiety. The only significant difference in outcomes between the COVID-19 cohort and the pre–COVID-19 cohort were lower odds of organized sports participation (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.69; 95% CI, 0.56-0.87). However, in subanalyses comparing adolescents with high anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic with adolescents in the pre–COVID-19 cohort, adolescents with high pandemic anxiety were more likely to experience clinical-level depression symptoms (aOR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.39-3.37) and poor physical health (aOR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.01-2.31).
Conclusions and Relevance In this cohort study of Norwegian adolescents, adolescents who started high school during the pandemic year had lower odds of organized sports participation in late 2020, but were otherwise comparable in terms of self-reported mental and physical health with their pre–COVID-19 counterparts. However, adolescents in the COVID-19 cohort experiencing high pandemic-related anxiety had significantly greater odds of poorer mental and physical health than adolescents in the pre–COVID-19 cohort. Strategies aiming to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 may benefit from identifying youth disproportionally affected by the pandemic conditions
Alcohol's harm to others: does the drinking location matter?
No full textBackground: In order to curb alcohol's harm to others, it is important to identify the contexts where people experience such harm.
Objectives: To examine whether frequency of drinking in four different locations was associated with increased likelihood of experiencing harm from others' drinking.
Methods: Data stem from surveys conducted in the five Nordic countries in 2015 ( = 7065, aged 18-64 years) as part of the European Union's Joint Action on Reducing Alcohol Related Harm (RARHA). Three types of harm from others' drinking in the past 12 months were measured: verbally abused by, harmed physically by, and experienced a serious argument with someone who had been drinking. Respondents also reported frequency of drinking in their own home, in others' homes, in a pub/bar/club/restaurant, and outdoors the past 12 months.
Results: Country-pooled adjusted analyses showed that higher frequency of drinking in pubs/bars/clubs/restaurants, outdoors and in someone else's home was associated with increased likelihood of experiencing all three harms. Frequent drinking in one's own home was weakly associated with experience of harm. Women, young individuals, respondents without tertiary level of education and individuals who reported drinking almost daily were at increased risk of experiencing harm from others' drinking.
Conclusions: Frequent drinking on licensed premises and outdoors was most clearly associated with experiencing harm from others' drinking, suggesting that these are important arenas for preventive efforts. Women, young individuals, those with low educational level and the most frequent drinkers are important target groups for preventive efforts
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