The Role of Psychological Reactance in Drinking Following Alcohol Prevention Messages1

Two experiments tested whether a dogmatic alcohol prevention message may, by arousing psychological reactance (the motivation to reassert a threatened freedom) result in more subsequent alcohol consumption, compared to a neutral message. In Study 1, 535 college students received either a high-threat (dogmatic) or low-threat (neutral) message recommending either abstinence or controlled drinking. Results indicated that high-threat messages were rated more negatively and resulted in more drinking intentions compared to low threat. The negative effect of high threat on message ratings was most pronounced for habitually heavy drinkers and an abstinence-espousing message. In Study 2, under the guise of a “memory study,” 74 college students received either a high- or low-threat message recommending abstinence from alcohol. Then, under the guise of a “perception study,” all subjects participated in a taste-rating task in which their beer consumption was unobtrusively measured. Results indicated that the effect of high threat was most negative for male heavy drinkers, who drank significantly more beer compared to low-threat controls. These results suggest that the persuasive ability of alcohol prevention efforts depend to a considerable extent on the reactance-arousing properties of the materials and that dogmatic alcohol prevention materials may have counterproductive effects for some college students.     

当代美英法律心理学研究概况

本文概述了当代美英法律心理学研究的状况,着重论述了它的主要研究领域:证人证言,讯问与供述,法庭心理学,陪审团研究,犯罪心理学,被害人心理学以及司法程序心理学,这些内容对于深化我国的法律心理学研究,具有积极意义。     

A faith for all seasons

A FAITH FOR ALL SEASONS:ISLAM AND WESTERN MODERNITY. By Shabbir Akhtar. London: Bellew Publishing, 1990. 251pp. Hb. £25.00. ISBN 0–947792–41–4.     

4-6岁儿童认知发展过程中直接认知成分与间接认知成分相互关系的研究

本实验是分析学前儿童认知过程中三种不同的条件(实物、照片、语言指示)对儿童计数、操作和比较活动的影响,探讨认知的各直接成分和各间接成分的关系在儿童认知发展中的作用;并了解3—6岁儿童在三种认知活动中的特点。     

老年人短时记忆特点的研究

本工作以50名青年作对照,对240名65—90岁正常老人的短时记忆特点进行了研究。结果看到:1.在逻辑故事记忆、图象自由回忆、数字广度和指向记忆四项记忆成绩上,均有随年老而衰退的明显趋势。其中除数字广度外,其他三项记忆在入老年后(65岁至90岁)有继续减退的趋势。在逻辑故事、指向记忆和总分上还见到有65岁和70岁组、75岁和80岁组成绩接近的现象;2.老年人顺背数字成绩较好,对刺激序列中末端刺激的正确回忆率较高,均说明老年人的初级记忆受损较少;3.四项记忆成绩比较,青年组故事分节分最高,然后依次为图象自由回忆、顺背数字和指向记忆,而老年组则无此明显顺序;4.文化因素对记忆成绩有明显影响。     

Strategic Revenue Management under Uncertainty: A Case Study on Real Estate Projects in India

This paper proposes an approach for strategic revenue management under uncertainty for real estate projects. It integrates three modelling techniques: first, artificial neural network integrated support vector machines for forecasting the profit and loss‐making real estate residential projects; second, analytical network process approach using decision making trials and evaluation laboratory methodology for establishing interrelationships among factors; and third, multiobjective genetic algorithm approach for obtaining optimal numbers and types of apartments in a real estate project. We compare the respective revenues generated with the new number of apartments and price from the suggested revenue maximization model and that of the old practiced one through a case study of India. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Losing My Religion as a Natural Experiment: How State Pressure and Taxes Led to Church Disaffiliations between 1940 and 2010 in Germany

The sociological literature has produced a remarkably consistent picture of the quantitative patterns of religious disaffiliations in Western countries. This article argues, and demonstrates, that strong changes in a social context may lead individuals to disaffiliate rapidly, leading to very different aggregate effects from those in the “western model.” We use the unique situation of the separation of Germany from 1949 to 1989 and its subsequent reunification as a “natural experiment” to show just how much the relationships routinely found can be disrupted under changed conditions. The state socialist “treatment” affected religious disaffiliations in East Germany profoundly as it (a) made disaffiliations 10 times more probable in the East than in the West in the 1950s and 1960s, (b) shielded East German church members from factors that led to mass disaffiliations in the West in the late 1960s and early 1970s, (c) reversed the education‐disaffiliation link in the East, thus making disaffiliation more likely among the less educated, and (d) led to an especially strong increase in disaffiliations in the East right after the reunification     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms Predict Girls’ but Not Boys’ Emotion Regulation: A Prospective Moment-to-Moment Observation Study

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - We aimed to further the understanding of maternal depressive symptoms on temporal dynamics of child emotion regulation by applying the process...     

Changing the Criminal Justice System Response to Sexual Assault: An Empirical Study of a Participatory Action Research Project

In jurisdictions throughout the United States, thousands of sexual assault kits (SAKs; also known as a “rape kits”) have not been submitted by the police for forensic DNA testing. DNA evidence may be helpful to sexual assault investigations and prosecutions by identifying perpetrators, revealing serial offenders through DNA matches across cases, and exonerating those who have been wrongly accused. This paper describes a longitudinal action research project conducted in Detroit, Michigan after that city discovered approximately 11,000 untested sexual assault kits in a police department storage facility. We conducted a root cause analysis to examine individual, organizational, community, and societal factors that contributed to the development of the rape kit backlog in Detroit. Based on those findings, we implemented and evaluated structural changes to increase staffing, promote kit testing, and retrain police and prosecutors so that cases could be reopened for investigation and prosecution. As we conducted this work, we also studied how this action research project impacted the Detroit criminal justice system. Participating in this project changed stakeholders’ attitudes about the utility of research to address community problems, the usefulness of DNA evidence in sexual assault cases, and the impact of trauma on survivors. The results led to new protocols for SAK testing and police investigations, and new state legislation mandating SAK forensic DNA testing.