From Serendip

MENTAL HEALTH Materials provided here are neither intended nor suitable for individuals needing practical assistance with specific mental health problems of their own or of friends/family/colleagues. For such situations, people should contact local mental health agencies, doctors, or other health care professionals. Some access points are provided here.

Center for Science in Society

• Mouse Gene Trap Helps Decipher Brain's Wiring Diagram, March 2001
  Researchers funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have developed a way to discover the wiring diagram of the mammalian brain.

• Intraspecific Competition in a Social Spider
  Abstract of a study that developed an individual-based model to investigate the consequences of behavioural interactions between individuals in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola (Eresidae) on individual variability.

• Intraspecific Variation in New Zealand, 1988
  This article, from the journal Fauna of New Zealand, discusses the New Zealand encyrtids and the extreme intraspecific variability of most of the endemic or indigenous species.

• Individual Variation and Population Dynamics, 1994
  This downloadable article examined the effects of individual variation in demographic traits on a family of deterministic single-species models assuming a temporally constant environment.

• Individual Variation and Interrelationships Between Swimming Performance, Growth Rate, and Feeding in Juvenile Rainbow Trout
  An abstract from an article discussing individual variation in trout.

• Effects of Individual Variation in Age and Size at Metamorphosis on Growth and Survivorship of Southern Toad Metamorphs
  An abstract from an article discussing individual variation in toads.

• Individual and Geographic Variation in Display Behaviour of Male Harbour Seals, Phoca Vitulina, in Scotland, 2000
  This abstract (entire article must be downloaded) studyies variations in behaviour at the individual or population level to gain insight into the reproductive strategies within a species.

• Population Consequences of Individual Variation
  How the individual variation in behaviour and physiology affects the dynamics of populations. Study focuses on female seals and their pups.

• Variable Reinforcement
  Variability, variable reinforcement and variable behavior in dogs.

• Dynamics In The Fine Structure Of Schedule-Controlled Behavior, 1992
  The paper characterizes the chronic variability in behavior maintained under some simple contingencies of reinforcement in pigeons. From Exper Analysis of Behavior, May, 1992, William L. Palya.

• Weapons Research Kicks Up A Stink, February 26, 2002
  Claims that US defense officials funded research into identifying non-lethal odors targeted at specific ethnic groups have set biologist against psychologist about the feasibility of such a development in biochemical weaponry. Individual variation in smell discussed.

• Sex Differences Called Key in Medical Studies, April 25, 2001
  Biomedical researchers should pay much more attention to the different ways in which women and men are affected by diseases and various treatments for disease.

• Women Alcoholics Suffer More Than Men
  A new study shows that women alcoholics suffer more physical, mental and social problems than male alcoholics.

• Evaluation of a New Experimental Electrical Pain Model in Humans, 1996
  This article discusses variability in pain threshold and tolerance.

• Individual Variability in Responses to Nicotine
  An abstract from the National Institute on Drug Abuse this Director's Report to the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (September, 1995).

• Experiencing Ecstasy
  An article from the New York Times Magazine (January 1, 2001) that includes narrative descriptions of people's experiences with taking ecstasy (MDMA).

• Role of Individual Variation in Psychology
  Discusses the analysis of individual variation using a multivariate hierarchical linear model for behavioral data.

• Intra-Individual Variation in the Subjective Experiences of Older Adults
  Examines how subjective aspects of leisure may change across time within an individual.

• The Suggestibility of the Child Witness: The Role of Individual Differences and Their Assessment
  The present paper gives an overview of the individual-differences approach to eyewitness suggestibility in the broader context of the forensic evaluation of witnesses and their statements.

• Cross-Cultural Counseling In Disaster Settings
  Article from the Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies. This 1999 issue suggests that when mental health workers assist with disasters in another country or with people from other cultures, it is essential that they have an understanding of the cultural norms and expectations of the population they hope to assist.

• An Evolutionary Perspective on Competition and Cooperation in Robert Wright's: The Moral Animal
  An evolutionary perspective to construct and test hypotheses about variation in behavior.

• Toward an Integrated Model of Driver Behavior in a Cognitive Architecture
  By modeling drivers as continuous controllers, the discrete nature of drivers' control actions is lost and with it an important component for characterizing behavioral variability.

• Temporal Information Processing, Attention and Memory
  Temporal reasoning and behavioral variability: studying both high and low-level mechanisms of dynamic control with an emphasis on gaining a deep understanding of how these levels are integrated into a single system.

• Behavioral Variation: A Neglected Aspect in Selectionist Thinking, 1999
  This article presents the basic tenets of selectionist psychology and attempts to explore the role of behavioral variability in human behavior and its importance in the emergence of intelligence, humor production, and self-regulation. From Behavior and Philosophy, 1999.

• Behavioral Variabililty in SHR and WKY Rats As a Function of Rearing Environment and Reinforcement Contingency, 1996
  The present study asked whether behavioral variability in the SHR strain is influenced by rearing environment, a question related to hypotheses concerning the etiology of human ADHD. Study must be downloaded.

• A Structure and Culture Model Of Organizational Behavior Variability Reduction, 1997
  This paper develops and presents a descriptive model in an attempt to explain the roles and relationships of organizational culture and organizational structure in reducing behavioral variability in the work place.

• Variability in Brain Function and Behavior, 1994
  The Harvard Law provides the basis for a desireable and productive fusion of scientific and folk perspectives on the determinants of behavior, one which acknowledges that some degree of unpredictability is not only inevitable but desireable. From the Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, vol. 4, 1994, Paul Grobstein.

• Self-Reported Coping Behavior in Health and Disease: Assessment with a Card Sort Game, 1998
  The authors tested the hypothesis that individuals with a variety of severe chronic illnesses and the healthy elderly exhibit a loss of flexibility in their response to a variety of stressors, compared with healthy adults. From Behavioral Medicine, Spring, 1998, Carolyn E. Schwartz.

• Self-Experimentation, 1998
  This chapter, from the book Handbook of Research Methods in Human Operant Behavior, tries to show that self-experiments are useful for gaining knowledge and solving problems, and that self-experimentation and conventional research have complementary strengths.

• The Role of Inheritance in Behavior, 1990
  This paper discussed the identification of genes responsible for genetic variance on behavior. From Science, April 13, 1990, Robert Plomin.

• Sources of Human Psychological Differences: The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart
  This study challenges prevailing psychological theories on the origins of individual differences in ability, personality, interests, and social attitudes. From Science magazine, October 12, 1990, Thomas Bouchard.

• The Nature of the MDMA Experience and Its Role in Healing, Psychotherapy, and Spiritual Practice
  This paper describes some observations from individual and group experiences with MDMA and other empathogenic substances. From The Journal of Consciousness and Change, Spring 1998, Sophia Adamson.

• The Nonlinear Dynamics of Response Rate in FI Schedules in Children
  Using a nonlinear dynamical system model developed by Hoyert (1992), this study investigated whether the model could be used to understand human behavioral variability in temporal task.

• Population Viability Analysis
  A Popwerpoint demonstration with several slides (#20-#22) addressing individual variation.

• Individual Variation in the Wages of Farm Laborers, 1999
  This paper focus on individual wage variations, as evidenced from early 19th century farm accounts, and the importance of human capital in agriculture.

• The Linguistic Individual: Self-Expression in Language and Linguistics, 1996
  Book abstract that discusses the self-expressive function of language and linguistic variation from individual to individual. Book must be ordered.

• Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection
  Both drift and natural selection require genetically-based individual variation to effect evolution. This article disucsses the source of this variation in the population.

TASTE

• An Education in Taste, 1999
  A conversation with Linda Bartoshuk, an expert on the physiology of taste, and Jacques Pépin, celebrity chef and cookbook author, explores the many facets of taste. From Yale Medicine, 1999.

• To Tast or Not To Taste, 1999
  As a result of genetics, how individuals experience taste varies greatly and people can be divided into tasters, nontasters and supertasters. From Yale Medicine, 1999.

• A Taste Expert Sniffs Out a Long-Standing Measurement Oversight, 2000
  Research on taste perception highlights a scaling problem that may have widespread repercussions. Discussion of research article by Linda Bartoshuk, PhD. From Monitor on Psychology, October 2000.

• A Taste Illusion: Taste Sensation Localized by Touch
  We get calories from three categories of macronutrients: Carbohydrates (which include sugar and starch), Proteins and Fats. To consider how these might be detected, we must distinguish between taste and smell.

• Test Your Taste Buds
  In this experiment we will look at the correlation between the number of taste buds and ratings of flavor intensity.

Back to Mental Health Project.

These resource lists are being maintained by Debbie Plotnick, working with Paul Grobstein, Department of Biology, and James Martin, School of Social Work and Social Research, at Bryn Mawr College. Suggestions for additions to the list are welcome, as are more general thoughts about how to most effectively make available information, and promote conversation, about issues of mental health. Contact dplotnic@brynmawr.edu - pgrobste@brynmawr.edu - jmartin@brynmawr.edu.


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