Deadly Force and Deadly Outcome: Examining the Officer,Suspect, and Situational Characteristics of Officer-Involved Shootings

ABSTRACT

Police use-of-force in general, and police use of deadly force in particular, has been at the forefront of national media attention in recent years. Despite this visibility, scholarly attention to the complexities and nuances of the dynamics at play that lead to fatal and non-fatal outcomes for suspects involved in these encounters has been limited. As such, the current study draws from data collected from 2015 to 2018 in the state of Texas to examine the officer-, suspect-, and situational-level correlates and predictors of suspect death resulting from being involved in an officer-involved shooting. Bivariate results suggest that officer race, suspect race, the suspect being armed with a deadly weapon, and the officer responding to a suspicious activity call are significantly associated with suspect death versus being injured in an officer-involved shooting. More rigorous multivariate results reveal that the situational context (i.e., the suspect being armed with a deadly weapon and the incident resulting from a suspicious activity call) is particularly relevant for predicting the lethality of an officer-involved shooting for the suspect. Study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.     

The WHO/START Study: Promoting Suicide Prevention for a Diverse Range of Cultural Contexts

The WHO/Start Study is introduced and described in its four main components. The study originated as a response to growing concerns about trends of suicide, the prevalence of which in the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization is the highest among the six regions of the WHO. So far, nineteen centers have joined the study. This ambitious project is expected to provide important transcultural perspectives on both fatal and nonfatal suicidal behaviors, together with increased awareness for these phenomena and the growth of culture‐sensitive prevention programs.     

Psychometric properties of the Insomnia Catastrophizing Scale (ICS) in a large community sample

ABSTRACT

The purpose was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Insomnia Catastrophizing Scale (ICS) including factorial validity and internal consistency as well as discriminative and convergent validity. Associations with sleep parameters and daytime impairment are also examined. Drawn from a randomly selected sample of the general population, 1615 participants completed a survey on insomnia-related nighttime and daytime symptoms, health outcomes and psychological processes, including the ICS. A one-factor solution was supported for both the nighttime catastrophizing (11 items) and daytime catastrophizing (6 items) subscales. Both subscales displayed high internal consistencies (α > 0.90) and accounted for 59.1–70.1% of the variance. The insomnia disorder group had significantly higher scores than participants without insomnia on the two subscales and on the individual items. Cutoffs were established for both subscales with acceptable sensitivity and specificity. Both subscales displayed adequate convergent validity with measures indexing worry, cognitive pre-sleep arousal and anxiety. The two subscales were also significantly associated with nighttime and daytime insomnia symptoms. The ICS is a reliable and valid scale for the assessment of insomnia-related catastrophizing. Future research is needed to examine the test-retest reliability and treatment sensitivity of the ICS.     

Elementary Students’ Motivation to Read and Genre Preferences

Abstract

This study examines the psychometric properties of a reading motivation measure with a sample of upper elementary students in the United States (n?=?195). The research explores upper elementary students’ motivation to read, the amount/frequency of their reading in general, and their preferences for different text genres. Factor analyses support the validity and reliability of the SRQ-RM for upper elementary students in the United States, a tool not previously used with this population. This study also included a nuanced assessment of students’ genre preferences, which has implications for reading motivation and effective classroom instruction.     

A simple proof of the spearman-brown formula for continuous test lengths

A direct proof is given for the generalized Spearman-Brown formula for any real multiple of test length.     

Perceptions of Forgetfulness in Adulthood

Abstract

In two experiments, we examined younger and older participants’ appraisals of memory failures in fictitious characters portrayed as younger (in their 20’s to 30’s) or older (in their 60’s to 70’s) adults. Participants read vignettes where forgetful behavior had minor or more severe consequences for the target character (Experiment 1) or for the character and others in the social environment (Experiment 2). Participants rated potential causes of the forgetfulness and opinions concerning the target character’s cognitive health. In Experiment 1, an age-based double standard was observed, where both age groups rated ability as a cause of forgetting more often for older than younger characters. Ratings of forgetfulness as a sign of mental difficulty, need for memory training, and professional evaluation were also higher for older compared to younger characters. In Experiment 2, the Attribution Type by Target Age interaction effect was replicated. Ability and effort contributed to the significance of the interaction, confirming the reliability and generalizability of the age-based double standard. Forgetfulness was rated as a sign of mental difficulty more often for the older than younger characters, replicating Experiment 1. In both experiments, the consequences of the forgetting had a large impact on the attribution and opinion ratings for younger and older forgetful characters. These data suggest that people of all ages evaluate forgetful characters in light of situational outcomes as well as ageist presumptions of cognitive frailty in later life.     

Exploring tensions of using interpretative phenomenological analysis in a domain with conflicting cultural practices

ABSTRACT

The philosophical foundations of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)—phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography—guide its practice and use. However, this foundation is often at odds with cultural practices of disciplines that value post-positivist perspectives emphasizing that reality can be objectively known. The conflict between the philosophical underpinnings of the methodology and the cultural practices of particular disciplines can serve to limit the use and acceptance of IPA. This article highlights ways researchers can use IPA even when the underlying tenets of that methodological approach may be in conflict with disciplinary norms. As such, we have set out to explore the tensions that accompany the choice to use IPA in the context of engineering education research within the United States. As a group of engineering education researchers, we drew upon collaborative inquiry to systematically examine our use of IPA. Our exploration of using IPA, as connected to everyday practice in a discipline that takes a postpositivist stance toward knowledge generation, provides examples for the use of IPA in tension with these disciplinary norms.     

An Examination of the Connections Between Eating Disorder Symptoms,Perceived Burdensomeness,Thwarted Belongingness,and Suicide Risk Among Undergraduate Students

Suicide attempts and premature mortality due to suicide are elevated in people with eating disorders. Informed by the interpersonal theory of suicide, two studies examined the role of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness in explaining the association between eating disorder symptoms and suicide risk. Results indicated that various eating disorder symptoms had an indirect effect on suicide risk through perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. Targeting perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness may be useful for decreasing suicide risk among undergraduates with eating disorder symptoms.