Previous research reported that the Masculine Gender Role Stress (MGRS) scale identifies men who are susceptible to stress when challenges to their masculinity ideology occurred in masculine gender relevant situations (e.g.

This article proposes an approach to understanding men's abuse of their intimate partners. The authors suggest that the concept of masculine gender role stress (MGRS) might be useful in identifying men who are predisposed to become abusive with their intimate partners. College men who scored either high or low on an MGRS scale were assessed, and their attributions, affect, and conflict resolution behavior toward their intimate female partners were examined. Participants were presented with masculine-gender-relevant and masculine-gender-irrelevant vignettes involving disputes with their intimate female partners. Results indicated that men high in MGRS attributed greater negative intent; expressed more irritation, anger, and jealousy; and endorsed aggressive responding more often than did men low in MGRS. Implications of MGRS and masculine relevance of conflicts for understanding male abusive behavior are discussed.Male abusiveness and violence against women have often been attributed to men's adherence to their understanding of culturally defined masculinity (Brooks & Silverstein, 1995;Doyle, 1989). According to this reasoning, men are socialized to be competitive and to develop power and control strategies that encourage expressions of anger and curtail expressions of vulnerability (Doyle, 1989;Eisler & Blalock, 1991). Studies have suggested that strong identification with these stereotyped masculine gender roles may be responsible, in part, for men's violence against women in their intimate relationships (for reviews, see Smith, 1990;Sugarman & Frankel, 1996). Finn (1986) reported that college men who held traditional masculine attitudes about the superior status and authority of men were more likely to endorse marital violence by husbands against their wives. In addition, men who strongly endorsed traditional masculine roles were more likely to physically abuse their female dating partners (Bernard,

Research on fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) has historically held that postnatal deficits result directly from prenatal alcohol exposure. Such exposure may alter infant behavior, and this in turn may affect maternal responsiveness and consequently increase the infant's risk for postnatal deficits. This study examined the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on postnatal blood ethanol concentrations, pup development, and the ability of pups to elicit retrieval behaviors from the dam. Dams given access to a 15% ethanol solution throughout gestation and lactation showed blood ethanol concentrations of 0.1%, whereas their pups had concentrations below the sensitivity of the test. Prenatal alcohol exposure was shown to have pharmacological effects on the pup's righting reflex and nutritional effects on its rate of weight gain. Control pups were better able to elicit retrieval behavior from control and alcoholic dams than were fetally alcoholic pups. These results indicate that the condition of the pup can influence maternal responsiveness which, in turn, can influence pup development.

Rats with either hippocampal or neocortical lesions and normal unoperated control rats received 60 runway training trials under 12-or 1-pellet reward and then 42 trials under the original reward magnitude for half of the rats or under the opposite magnitude for the remaining half. Over the first 60 trials performance levels increased reliably with reward magnitude for each surgical condition; no reliable differences occurred among conditions. Following reward change neocortical and normal animals showed reliable negative contrast effects under decreased reward and performance similar to 12-pellet controls under increased reward. Hippocampally damaged rats showed nonsignificant performance changes following reward change. Their postshift performance was a reliable direct function of initial reward magnitudes.

The Masculine Gender Role Stress (MGRS) Scale identifies men who appraise challenges to their masculine gender ideology as stressful. This experiment investigated the effects of masculine gender relevance of task instructions on cardiovascular reactivity and serial subtraction performance of men who scored high or low on the MGRS. High MGRS men showed significantly greater increases in systolic blood pressure following masculine gender-relevant than masculine gender-irrelevant instructions; low MGRS men did not. Following masculine gender-relevant instructions, high MGRS men made significantly fewer correct responses in serial subtraction than did low MGRS men; gender-irrelevant instructions produced no significant group differences. Results suggested that some men's susceptibility to appraise challenges to their masculine ideology as stressful augments their arousal levels and impairs their cognitive performance.

Rats that received hippocampal lesions, cortical lesions, or a control operation were administered runway training under single alternation (SA) or random (Rm) patterns of rewarded and nonrewarded trials, followed by extinction. Under SA training cortically damaged and operated control rats showed reliable response alternation: slower running after rewarded than after nonrewarded trials. Hippocampally damaged rats showed nonsignificant alternation. Under Rm training, differences in performance among groups and between rewarded and nonrewarded trials were nonsignificant. Resistance to extinction was reliably greater for Rm over SA training for cortically damaged and operated control rats. For hippocampally damaged rats SA and Rm yielded extinction results similar to each other and to cortically damaged and control rats trained under Rm.

Runway studies by Jones (1953) and Melvin (1963) demonstrated that the resistance to extinction of escape behavior was inversely related to percentage of shock presentation during shock-escape training. Considering the acquisition of escape behavior, however, Jones reported that an intermittent schedule of shock presentation produced faster total running speeds and reliably faster starting speeds than did a continuous schedule of shock presentation; while Melvin reported a direct but non-significant relationship between alley speed and percentage of shock presentation. The present experiment attempted to clarify the relationship between shock schedules and escapebehaviorbyusingadifferent training situation and a greater number of training trials than were used by Jones and Melvin. MethodApparatus. The apparatus consisted in a start box and a safe box, each 11-1/4 in. long by 3-1/2 in. wide by 5-1/2 in. high (interior dimensions), separated by a guillotine door on a hurdle 2-1/4 in. high. The start box was painted white and had a grid floor consisting of 30 stainless steel rods, 1/8 in. thick, set 3/8 in. apart. The rods were wired in an alternate-bar system for the delivery of 50 volts (dc) shock to S from a constant voltage source. S provided the only resistance in the shock circuit. The safe box was painted black and had a solid floor which could be depressed.Additional compartments, each 10-1/2 in. long by 3-1/2 in. wide by 13 in. high (interior dimensions), served as lids for the start box and the safe box. Each lid contained a 7-1/2-watt lamp which provided an intertrial illumination of 7 ft.-c in each lower box. The lid of the start box also contained a 40-watt lamp for the CS, which was an increase in start box illumination from 7 ft.-c to 110 ft.-c. The illumination was diffused into the lower boxes through frosted Plexiglas 3/16 in. thick. Subjects, Design and Procedures.Ss were 36 experimentally-naive, female, Holtzman albino rats 99-106 cl9.ys old. They were randomly assigned to three groups (N = 12 Ss) to receive escape training with shock presentation on 33%, 66% or 100% of the trials.Psychon. Sci., 1966, Vol. 4 (7) JOSEPH J. FRANCHINA SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITYFollowing a day on which S explored each side of the apparatus for 6 min., each S received in succession, 2 days of 36 escape training trials per day and then, 2 days of 36 extinction trials per day. The minimal intertrial interval was 45 sec. During escape training, a shock trial consisted in plaCing S into the start box and, after 10 sec., opening the guillotine door, thereby simultanesouly producing the onset of the CS, the shOCk, and a timer (calibrated in .01 sec.). If S jumped the hurdle, the safe box floor depressed, terminating the CS and the timer. After 10 sec., S was removed from the apparatus. If S failed to jump the hurdle within 40 sec., S was removed from the start box with the CS, the shock, and the timer remaining on and a 40-sec. latency was recorded. Non-shock training trials and extinction trials were conducted exactly ...

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