Representations of handguns by young adults in the US and UK

The representation of handguns by a sample of university students (n = 96) from one of the southern states of the US, was contrasted with that of a sample of university students in the UK (n = 100), employing ANOVA and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. Exploring the structure of response, the findings showed little evidence for a common cross‐locational representation of handguns for the US and UK samples taken together. There was support for the existence of distinctive locational representations, some support for gender‐specific representations, and strong support for representations of handguns according to particular combinations of locality and gender. Representations of handguns by US males from the southern states were the most distinctive, complex and integrated in structure, bringing into question simplistic assumptions concerning the nature of an alleged ‘southern sub‐culture of violence’ or of a more general ‘gun culture’. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PATERNAL AND MATERNAL REFLECTIVE FUNCTIONING IN THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PEEL CHILD HEALTH STUDY

While past research on the care of infants has been mostly with mothers, in recent times there has been a renewed attention to the father–infant relationship. This study examined differences between mother and father parental reflective functioning (PRF) or parental mentalizing; that is, the parental capacity to reason about their own and their children's behaviors by taking into consideration intentional mental states. Data were collected from 120 couples with a 1‐year‐old child who were participants in the West Australian Peel Child Health Study. Parental mentalizing was assessed using the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ; Luyten, Mayes, Nijssens, & Fonagy, 2017 ). Results showed that mother and father mentalizing with their children was independent and that mothers scored slightly higher levels of mentalizing than did fathers. Paternal mentalizing was weakly associated with family income and father education, and was more strongly associated with family functioning than with maternal mentalizing. Implications for theorizing on PRF and fatherhood more generally are discussed.     

Validation of the AMBIANCE-brief: An observational screening instrument for disrupted caregiving

Resulting from a community-identified need for a well-validated indicator of caregiving difficulties for use in practice settings, a brief form of the Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification System (AMBIANCE) was developed for use as a screening instrument. Prior to its dissemination, this study aimed to assess the feasibility, reliability, and validity of the AMBIANCE-Brief. Adolescent mother–infant dyads (N = 69) participated in the Strange Situation Procedure, as well as play sessions with and without toys. Maternal disrupted caregiving was coded from the play sessions using the AMBIANCE and AMBIANCE-Brief. The AMBIANCE-Brief demonstrated convergent validity with the AMBIANCE in the play session with toys (r = .65, p < .001) and without toys (r = .61, p < .001). Concurrent validity of the AMBIANCE-Brief was also demonstrated in relation to infant attachment disorganization in the play session with toys (r = .36, p < .05) and without toys (r = .32, p < .01). These findings suggest a shorter protocol for assessing disrupted caregiving may be feasible and valid for use in community settings. Future studies are in progress to train community practitioners in the use of the AMBIANCE-Brief and to evaluate their reliability.     

Measuring, monitoring and managing the psychological well-being of first year university students

This paper profiles the psychological well-being of students in their initial year of university. There were three aims: to measure the impact of arrival at university on the psychological well-being of first year students, to monitor (i.e. profile) the shape of psychological well-being across the first year, and to investigate how students manage their well-being in relation to the use of university counselling services. Data were collected on four occasions, with 84% of all first year students at a UK university (4,699 students) completing the questionnaire on at least one occasion. Psychological well-being was assessed using the GP-CORE, a general population form of the CORE-OM. Results show that greater strain is placed on well-being once students start university compared to levels preceding entry. This strain rises and falls across the year but does not return to pre-university levels. Items tapping depression and anxiety suggest that the first year of university is a time of heightened anxiety but not a particularly depressive time. The findings are discussed in relation to students' experience of higher education and how to match student needs with university counselling service provision.     

Personality disorder and violence: understand violence risk: an introduction to the special section personality disorder and violence

This paper introduces the Special Section on personality disorder and violence. The first paper evaluates the impact of removing the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) as a mandatory element of a major approach to the assessment of violence risk-the HCR-20. The second paper considers violence to self as well as violence to others; it examines the influence of dysfunctional personality traits in a sample of female offenders. The third paper provides a systematic framework for risk formulation, discussing how to bridge the gap between nomothetic research and the individual case. This paper concludes by arguing that there is a need to shift perspective from asking "what?" dysfunctional traits are relevant to future violence to "why?" are particular traits relevant. The "why?" question is particularly germane in the forensic arena where expert testimony must endeavor to provide a causal explanation of risk processes at the level of the individual.     

Psychopathy in Iran: a cross-cultural study

Few cross-cultural studies have assessed psychopathy and none have included a sample from non-western countries. This study investigated the factor structure of the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) in an Iranian sample, and compared the results with a western sample. Three hundred fifty-one Iranian prisoners were compared with 405 participants of the standardization sample of the PCL:SV. Confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory method were used for data analysis. The Iranian data fitted well with the hierarchical three-factor model of psychopathy and neither two- nor four-factor models showed an adequate fit. Differential item functioning existed across samples, with discriminatory power of factor 1 (arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style) being lower in the Iranian sample that for factor 2 (deficient emotional experience) being greater in the Iranian sample than the standardization sample. Deficient emotional experience might be the most significant factor in diagnosing psychopathy, regardless of the studied culture. Other factors appear to be relatively culture-specific.     

The Limits of Learning: Habermas' Social Theory and Religion

Habermas' view that contemporary philosophy and social theory can learn from religious traditions calls for closer consideration. He is correct to hold that religious traditions constitute a reservoir of potentially important meanings that can be critically appropriated without emptying them of their motivating and inspirational power. However, contrary to what he implies, his theory allows for learning from religion only to a very limited degree. This is due to two core elements of his conceptual framework, both of which are key features of his account of postmetaphysical thinking. The first is the requirement of ethical agnosticism; this requires philosophy and social theory to refrain from offering guidance on questions of the good life. The second is his language‐immanent conception of truth in the domain of practical reason; this follows from his rejection of any source of validity beyond human communication in this domain. I make the case for a more robust account of learning from religious traditions and metaphysical worldviews, arguing that for this purpose Habermas must modify his requirement of ethical agnosticism and relinquish his language‐immanent conception of truth.     

Conscientiousness and agreeableness as predictors of rating leniency

The authors studied the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and rating elevation among 111 students making peer evaluations. It was hypothesized that Conscientiousness (C) scores would be negatively correlated with rating level and that Agreeableness (A) scores would be positively correlated with rating level. We further predicted that individuals who were low on C and high on A would produce the most elevated ratings. As predicted, A scores were positively related to rating level (.33, p < .01) and C scores were negatively correlated with rating level (-.37, p < .01). Using the strong hypothesis test (P. Bobko, 1986), the authors found that ratings by low C and high A individuals were more elevated than all other groups of students combined (p < .01).