Rodney King and O. J. Revisited: The Impact of Race and Defendant Empathy Induction on Judicial Decisions

White university students participated in a study to investigate the impact of defendant race and empathetic induction on a subsequent juror decision-making task. Participants read a passage involving a Black or a White defendant in a criminal case. They were subsequently induced to feel no empathy, low empathy, or high empathy for the defendant. When compared to participants in the low- and control empathy conditions, those in the high-empathy condition reported greater target empathy, made attributions that were more situational, and assigned more lenient punishments. The results also indicate that group membership can moderate the impact of empathetic induction. When compared to the participants in the Black defendant condition, those in the White defendant condition reported greater target empathy, made attributions that were more situational, and assigned more lenient punishments. Implications for both empathy and judicial decision-making research are discussed.     

Personality at the hub: Extending the conception of personality psychology

Personality psychology has a focus on understanding the functioning of the person as a whole, and is thus located at the hub of the other sub-disciplines of psychology and related sciences devoted to the study of human nature. As such, personality is well situated to integrate work emerging from different levels of analysis related to the distinctive organization and operation of psychological processes that characterize individuals. Personality psychology can have an exciting future to the extent that it can cross arbitrary lines of sub-disciplines, and connect with relevant interdisciplinary work devoted to understanding psychological phenomena, regardless of traditional boundaries. Several important areas of connection are highlighted, including links to social psychology, biology, and psychopathology, but trying to set priorities in terms of substantive areas for the field seems a futile exercise. Also discussed is the pressing need to find the most fruitful levels of abstraction at which to conceptualize our constructs to maximize their yield.     

Generation Units and the Student Protest Movement in the United States: An Intra- and Intergenerational Analysis

The American student protest movement provides exceptional opportunities to observe how formative political experiences can affect intragenerational cleavages over the adult life span and how they may reflect on intergenerational continuities. Long-term national panel data from the high school class of 1965 and data from their parents and offspring are used here to exploit these opportunities. The results show that a sharp rift in political participation and attitudes emerged between protesters and non-protesters during the protest era, a rift that persists into mid-life and one that testifies to the conceptual utility of generation units. Continuities across the three lineage generations are demonstrated by the moderate similarities in the ideological and participative orientations that are associated with the protest status of the student generation.     

How quickly do children forget events? A systematic study of children's event reports as a function of delay

Sixty‐six children aged between 5 and 7 years participated in the event, ‘Visiting the Pirate’, and were interviewed about it at one of five delays, namely, no delay (immediate interview), or at a 1‐week, 1‐day, 1‐month or 6‐month delay. For open‐ended recall, a significant decrease in the amount of information reported was detected only at the 6‐month delay, although forgetting functions indicated forgetting was most rapid at the shorter delays. Accuracy of open‐ended recall was maintained over all delays. In contrast, in response to specific, leading and misleading questions, accuracy had decreased significantly by the 6‐month delay. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings regarding the effects of delays on children's event reports are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Genetic Counseling Workplace—An Australasian Perspective. A National Study of Workplace Issues for Genetic Counselors and Associate Genetic Counselors

Genetic counseling in Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) has been recognized as a profession since the 1980s and has steadily expanded over the past 20 years. The demography of major cities with metropolitan sprawl and sparsely populated rural areas has led to the establishment of 3 types of genetics units: main units in cities, metropolitan outreach, and rural outreach units. A questionnaire was developed to obtain information about the needs, resources, and day-to-day operation of the genetic counselors. The questionnaire addressed the areas of resource availability, professional development, responsibility of genetic counselors in the clinical setting, and their involvement in promotion of the service and public education. Differences observed between the 3 settings in all of these areas included large clinical loads for metropolitan outreach counselors, varying responsibilities in the clinical setting, and a lack of support and resources for rural outreach counselors. Australasian Genetic counselors were found to have a significant interest in developing mechanisms for supervision and were keenly interested in maintaining credentials and professional role development. The results of this study allows genetic counselors themselves to have a better understanding of the roles of their colleagues in the different units; they can also be used by service providers in establishing and supporting genetic counselors, and identifying inequalities and deficiencies in the different practice areas.     

Putting the pieces together: Maternal depression,maternal behavior,and toddler helplessness

This study assessed relations between maternal depression, maternal behavior, and helplessness in toddlers. Helplessness was assessed behaviorally in 25‐ and 32‐month‐old toddlers while the toddlers were engaged with an impossible task. Maternal behavior (warmth, negativity, control, intrusiveness) was assessed during a mother–child teaching task when toddlers were 18 and 25 months of age. Mothers who reported more depressive symptoms on the BDI had 32‐month‐old toddlers who displayed more affect‐related helplessness. No direct relations were found between maternal diagnosis of depression and helplessness in toddlers. Few differences emerged in the behavior of depressed and nondepressed mothers while interacting with their toddlers, and few relations were found between maternal behavior alone and toddlers' helplessness. However, results suggest that maternal behavior moderates the relation between maternal depression (diagnosis, recency, and symptoms) and helplessness. ©2003 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Retroactive interference in rats: Independent effects of time and similarity of the intervening event with respect to acquisition

Events occurring during the retention intervals for a 5-min delayed alternation task were used to investigate the factors that influence retroactive interference. Appetitive reinforcement in an E-maze was employed to train rats on the delayed alternation task consisting of a forced-choice (target event) trial followed by a free-choice (test) trial. Occasional probe trials added a potentially interfering event either at the beginning, middle, or end of the retention period. These events also varied in similarity to the target events, ranging from low similarity to the converse of the target event. Interference increased both with the interval between the target and intervening events and with the similarity between the converse of the target event and the intervening event; however, there was no tendency, significant or otherwise, towards an interaction between stimulus similarity and the interval between the target and intervening events. Control groups demonstrated that the interference was of an associative nature and that the interval between the intervening event and the test trial was little consequence. These results are discussed in terms of two separate types of interference: similarity interference which depends on stimulus similarity of the intervening event to the converse of the target event but not on the temporal location of the intervening event, and processing interference which depends on the temporal location of the intervening event but not on its similarity to the converse of the target event.     

Applicant Perceptions of Test Fairness: Integrating Justice and Self-Serving Bias Perspectives

The justice perspective is the current dominant framework for research on applicant perceptions of test fairness. Recently, an emerging perspective suggests that self-serving bias mechanisms may be operative in the development of test fairness perceptions. Using data from 494 actual applicants to an entry-level State Police Trooper position, this study integrates both the justice and self-serving bias perspectives to achieve a better understanding of test fairness perceptions. Results from structural equation modeling show that perceived job-relevance affects perceived fairness. In addition, test performance affects both perceptions indirectly through perceived performance.