Perceived happiness of college students measured by Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Broad categories have been suggested for the events which contribute to happiness. In 1943 Maslow might have argued that people are happy when they meet or continue to meet their basic needs in his hierarchy of needs. A survey was given to 150 college students to assess which of Maslow's levels of need is perceived to be most important to happiness. Falling or staying in love was chosen significantly more often than the other choices by undergraduates of both genders. These results suggest that love is considered to be an extremely important contributor to the feeling of happiness among college students.

Reaction of male Mongolian gerbils to odors in a social situation.

The current study was designed to examine the possibility that odor from substances rubbed on the back of young stimulus animals will influence the social behavior of male Mongolian gerbils. Thirty adult subjects were tested for four 5-min sessions with young conspecifics that had water, perfume, urine, or ventral gland sebum rubbed on their back. The subjects showed significantly longer investigation duration and higher approach frequencies toward the subjects treated with urine or sebum. The results demonstrate that gerbils are attracted to relevant odors in a social situation.

Conditioned social aversion in the male Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus).

Adult male Mongolian gerbils formed conditioned social aversions to young male conspecifics. The basic paradigm consisted of pairing a subject with a young animal (test stimulus) for 5 min and then injecting the subject with lithium chloride to produce gastrointestinal distress. When retested 48 hr later, the subject avoided the animal used as a test stimulus, as indicated by significantly decreased investigation time and approach frequency. Through a series of experiments on dose level, delay of toxin injection, and stimulus generalization, it was demonstrated that a dose of .03 ml/g body weight of .15 M LiCl is effective, the injection of the toxin should be given within 15 min of the preliminary social pairing, the social aversion formed is specific to the particular first paired stimulus animal, and isolation between test sessions is necessary for an aversion to develop. This paradigm of conditioned social aversion extends our knowledge of the learned aversion process and demonstrates that this type of learning can be generalized to a social situation by gerbils.

Learned aversion to soiled bedding in male mongolian gerbils.

This study was designed to determine whether the conditioned aversion paradigm could be extended to aversion to soiled bedding in the male Mongolian gerbil. In Experiment 1, sixty subjects were exposed to a glass petri dish filed with soiled bedding placed in the center of a one-meter-square open field for two 5-min sessions 48 hours apart. Half of the subjects received an injection of lithium chloride immediately after session 1, while the rest received saline. The LiCl subjects learned to avoid the soiled bedding in session 2, as indicated by significantly longer latency to first approach and lower frequency of approach to the stimulus. Experiment 2 examined conditioned aversion to specific to soiled bedding. The research results demonstrate olfactory aversion of this type is possible in gerbils, and suggest that it may have an important influence on their social behavior.

Effects of alcohol and caffeine on wheel running activity in the Mongolian gerbil.

This study investigated the effects of various doses of alcohol (0.8, 1.6, 2.4 g/kg) and caffeine (5, 10, 15, 20 mg/kg) on wheel running activity in 180 male and female adult Mongolian gerbils. Animals were tested for two 10-min trials 48 hours apart. Thirty min prior to Trial 2, injections were administered intraperitoneally. The results indicate that low doses of both alcohol and caffeine increase and higher doses of alcohol decrease wheel running activity in gerbils of both sexes. These results agree with other findings on activity in other animals, and serve as a baseline for future drug research in the gerbil.

The effects of alcohol on agonistic behavior in the Telomian dog.

The study analyzed the effects of alcohol on agonistic behavior in three independent social systems, each compromised of two male and one female Telomian dog. Three dose levels were used: 0, 0.8, and 1.6 g/kg body weight of absolute alcohol diluted to 20%. Observations were made when none, one (top, middle or low ranking), or all dogs in a system received a given treatment. At the 0.8 g/kg level, low ranking dogs showed an increased frequency of attacks and bone possession time, while top and middle ranking dogs showed a decrease. At the 1.6 g/kg level, all subjects decreased their attacks and bone possession time. Alcohol decreased frequency of agonistic vocalizations under all conditions. There were differential social rank effects on frequency of retreats. Overall, the results were similar whether one or all dogs received the particular treatment.

Attachment and separation distress in the infant guinea pig.

This study systematically examined separation-induced distress vocalization in the infant guinea pig. Experiment I found that under maximum separation from both social and physical surroundings, the distress vocalization rate remained high for the 1st 4 weeks and then continuously declined to near zero by Week 12. Repeated testings had no effect on habituation of the rate during Week 5. Experiment II, using separation distress vocalization responses to the social (the mother) and the physical (the home pen) environments, showed that when the mother was present the vocalization rate was extremely low, and when she was absent the rate was moderate if the subject was isolated in the home box and high if the subject was in an unfamiliar box. Experiment III confirmed the finding that primary social attachment took place toward the mother. These results corroborate other attachment measures, and indicate the usefulness of the vocalization technique for the study of attachment in the infant guinea pig.

Alleviation of separation distress in 3 breeds of young dogs.

Twenty-four puppies (8 each of Shetland sheepdogs, Telomians, and beagles) served as subjects in this experiment which was designed to examine the effectiveness of 12 stimulus conditions (food, toys, canine contact, and human contact) on alleviation of separation-induced distress vocalization. Testing consisted of a prestimulus trial, stimulus trial, and post-stimulus trial each session 3 times a week from 4 to 8 weeks after birth. Overall results showed human contact to be the most effective, followed by canine contact, toys, and food. Breed differences were significant in only 2 of the stimulus conditions. In the typical case of effective treatment, the vocalization rate declined from the prestimulus trial to a low point in the stimulus trial and then increased again in the post-stimulus trial.