Advances in stalking risk assessment

Over the past 15 years, forensic mental health has become more concerned with the concepts of violence prevention, management, and treatment. The development of specialist tools to aid in the assessment of a range of risks reflects this concern. This article explores contemporary thinking on violence risk assessment and how this knowledge can be applied to the relatively newer field of stalking risk assessment. The role of risk state and risk status are discussed, in addition to the way that standard structured professional judgment procedures need to be adapted to reflect the variety of risks present in stalking situations. The authors go on to describe the development and format of the Stalking Risk Profile, a set of structured professional judgment guidelines for assessing risk in stalkers. Suggestions are made for future research to enhance knowledge and improve practice in the field of stalking risk assessment.     

Effects of intranasal oxytocin on 'compassion focused imagery'

This study explored the effects of oxytocin on Compassion Focused Imagery (CFI), that is, imagining another "mind" being deeply compassionate to oneself, and the interaction of these effects with self-criticism and feeling socially safe with others. Forty-four healthy participants (29 men and 15 women) completed self-report measures of self-criticism, attachment style, and social safeness before taking part in a double-blind randomized placebo controlled study. They attended two imagery sessions, receiving oxytocin in one and a placebo in the other. Positive affect was measured before and after each imagery session, and "imagery experience" was assessed after each session. Overall, oxytocin increased the ease of imagining compassionate qualities but there were important individual differences in how CFI was experienced. Participants higher in self-criticism, lower in self-reassurance, social safeness, and attachment security had less positive experiences of CFI under oxytocin than placebo, indicating that the effects of oxytocin on affiliation may depend on attachment and self-evaluative styles.     

Same-gender stalking in Sweden and Australia

This study examined the phenomenon of same-gender stalking and sought to identify differences between same- and opposite-gender stalking cases. Ninety-four same-gender and 160 opposite-gender stalking cases from Sweden and Australia were compared on demographic, offense, clinical, and behavioral characteristics. The groups were largely similar, differing mainly in the nature of the prior relationship between stalker and victim and the stalker's motivation. The most notable distinction was the significantly greater prevalence of ex-intimate partner stalkers in the opposite-gender group (65%) versus the same-gender group (32%), leading to the exclusion of ex-intimates from the subsequent analysis to remove this potentially confounding variable. Amongst non-ex-intimates, same-gender stalkers were significantly more likely to be female and to stalk out of a sense of resentment and grievance. The results showed that the gender of the victim and perpetrator was less important to the course and conduct of a stalking episode than were the stalker's motivation and the nature of the prior relationship to the victim.     

Reinforcer quality matters: A test of the Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement with domestic hens (Gallus gallus domesticus)

This study evaluated the ability of Killeen's (1994) Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement to account for the effects of changes in reinforcer quality on hens' rates of responding on fixed‐ratio schedules. Hens were trained to peck a key on a fixed‐ratio schedule of reinforcement and then experienced an ascending series of ratio values in two separate conditions. In different conditions, the food reinforcer was either wheat or puffed wheat. Response rates initially increased with increases in ratio requirement before eventually decreasing at larger ratios. Quantitative fits of the model accounted for the data well. The fits revealed that different foods were systematically associated with changes in the specific activation parameter, a, and these were consistent with previous reports of preference for those food items.     

Learning Experiences Contributing to Service-Delivery Competence in Applied Psychologists: Lessons for Sport Psychologists

The purpose of the present study was to compare learning experiences perceived to contribute to service-delivery competence in sport, clinical, and counseling psychologists. Twenty psychologists (11 female, 9 male; 28–70 years of age) participated in semistructured interviews. All participants emphasized the role of client interactions in learning service-delivery processes. In addition, clinical and counseling participants reported personal therapy and supervision as influential experiences. Applied implications for training include (a) regional supervision networks comprising peers and elders, (b) university-based sport psychology clinics, and (c) personal and professional development groups.     

Developmental path between language and autistic‐like impairments: a twin study

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are diagnosed when individuals show impairments in three behavioural domains: communication, social interactions, and repetitive, restrictive behaviours and interests (RRBIs). Recent data suggest that these three sets of behaviours are genetically heterogeneous. Early language delay is strongly associated with ASD, but the basis for this association and the relationship with individual sub‐domains of ASD has not been systematically investigated. In the present study, data came from a population‐based twin sample with language development data at 2–4 years, measured by the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI), and data at 8 years using the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test (CAST). For the total CAST and the three subscales at 8 years, approximately 300 same‐sex twin pairs were selected as showing extreme autistic‐like traits (ALTs), defined here as pairs in which at least one member of the twin pair scored in the highest 5% of the distribution. Phenotypic analyses indicated that children showing extreme social and communication ALTs (but not the RRBI subscale) at 8 years were below average in language development at 2–4 years. A regression model for selected twin data suggested that genetic influences account for this overlap, but that these effects are only in part mediated by genes that are shared between language and extreme autistic traits. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the performance of brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) on the Mechner counting procedure

Animal Cognition - This study assessed brushtail possums’ performance on the Mechner counting procedure. Six brushtail possums were required to produce different Fixed-Ratio (FR) response...     

Teamwork Training in Sport: A Pilot Intervention Study

The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of a novel team building intervention that targets teamwork in sport. Using a 10-week pilot nonrandomized controlled intervention design, 12 interdependent sports teams comprising 187 athletes were assigned to one of two conditions: an experimental condition in which teams participated in two teamwork training sessions at Weeks 2 and 6 of the study (6 teams, 94 athletes) or a no-training control condition (6 teams, 93 athletes). Teamwork was measured at Weeks 1, 5, and 10 of the study. Overall, significant improvements in teamwork were shown for the experimental teams from baseline to Week 5; these effects were maintained through Week 10 of the study. In contrast, no significant changes in teamwork were observed for teams in the control condition over these 10?weeks. The results provide evidence that teamwork training can enhance the extent to which members of a sports team work effectively together.

Lay Summary: For sport teams to be successful, it is important that team members work well together. In this study, we found that teamwork can be enhanced through a novel team building intervention.