The deterrent effect of capital punishment during the 1950s

This investigation examines the deterrence hypothesis of an inverse relationship between state execution rates and homicides. Although this question has received some attention in recent studies, the findings of these investigations are mixed. Cross-sectional analyses of states have typically shown execution and homicide rates to be positively associated, while at least two national time-series studies report support for the deterrence hypothesis. To test whether these divergent findings are result of the two different methodologies employed (cross-sectional vs. time-series), a methodology that combines the strengths of each is used in the present study. For the period 1950 to 1960, we examine cross-sectionally for states the relationship between changes in execution rates and changes in murder rates. This analysis does not find support for the deterrence argument for the certainty of the death penalty when a number of models of the execution rate--murder rate relationship are considered, and when a variety of imprisonment and socio-demographic factors are considered as control variables.     

A Social Learning Approach to Increasing Blood Donations1

A field experiment conducted in high schools throughout the country was aimed at increasing the number of high school students who donate blood. Special interventions that emphasized psychological or educational approaches to heightening motivation to donate, as well as a combined intervention, were compared with the usual approach taken at blood drives. Psychological interventions in which social learning principles (modeling, perceptions of social norms) played important roles either alone or in combination with an educational (informational) approach were more successful in stimulating blood donations than either an educational approach alone or the approaches traditionally followed by the participating local blood centers. The results demonstrated that use of social learning principles in designing interventions to strengthen socially relevant altruistic behavior could be valuable both practically and theoretically.     

Self-Efficacy,Perceptions of Success,and Intrinsic Motivation for Exercise1

A number of investigators have attempted to identify the determinants of continued participation in exercise regimens. Within a social cognitive framework, the present study examined the relationships among self-efficacy cognitions, perceptions of success, and multidimensional intrinsic motivation in the exercise domain. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that highly efficacious individuals were more intrinsically motivated toward aerobic dance than were their less efficacious counterparts. However, multiple regression analyses revealed both perceptions of success and self-efficacy to account for significant variance in intrinsic motivation at both the composite and dimensional levels. Moreover, perceptions of success were considerably stronger predictors than were efficacy cognitions. The results are discussed in terms of the need for multiple measures of perceived success, the employment of longitudinal designs to determine the direction of causality among these variables, and possible implications for adherence issues.     

FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING TO REDUCE CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR: MAINTENANCE AND APPLICATION IN NEW SETTINGS

We evaluated the initial effectiveness, maintenance, and transferability of the results of functional communication training as an intervention for the challenging behaviors exhibited by 3 students. Assessment indicated that escape from academic demands was involved in the maintenance of the challenging behaviors. Social attention was also implicated as controlling the behavior of 1 student. The intervention involved teaching alternative assistance-seeking and attention-getting phrases to the students in an effort to replace challenging behavior with these verbal equivalents. Multiple baseline data collected across the 3 students indicated that not only did the intervention substantially reduce challenging behavior but also that these results transferred across new tasks, environments, and teachers, and were generally maintained from 18 to 24 months following the introduction of functional communication training. These results are discussed in light of recent efforts to develop effective interventions for severe challenging behavior and to understand the processes underlying transfer and maintenance of intervention effects.     

Fathers' involvement in their children's healthcare.

Fathers' involvement in the routine healthcare of young children was investigated, and fathers' relative participation in two tasks, staying home with a sick child and taking the child to the doctor or dentist, was assessed. The relationships between fathers' involvement in healthcare and several other measures, including mothers' employment status, fathers' attitudes toward women's rights and roles, the amount of time fathers spent at work, and fathers' involvement in housework, were also examined. The subjects were 50 fathers of young children in intact, White, middle-class families. Both staying home with a sick child and taking a child to the doctor or dentist were usually performed by mothers, but when mothers were employed, fathers were significantly more involved, regardless of the child's sex. Staying home with a sick child and taking a child to the doctor or dentist were positively related to fathers' involvement in housework. Fathers' staying home with a sick child was significantly correlated with fewer hours at work and liberal attitudes toward women's rights and roles; these variables were not related to taking a child to the doctor or dentist. Positive correlations between fathers' involvement in housework and staying home with a sick child and taking a child to the doctor or dentist suggests that fathers' involvement in childcare is viewed as an aspect of family work.     

Setting phenotypes in a mutual help organization: Expanding behavior setting theory

Expands Barker's theory of behavior settings by proposing an additional method of classifying settings based on their functional/behavioral aspects--the setting phenotype. Although behavior setting theory has been widely hailed as a revolutionary contribution to behavioral science, it has had limited impact on general psychology. This may be due in part to a reliance on a purely structural method of classifying behavior settings--the setting genotype. Behavioral data were collected from 510 meetings of 13 self-help groups from a mutual help organization for persons with problems in living. A cluster analysis was performed to uncover meaningful behavioral patterns among the groups. Four phenotypes were identified: personal, impersonal, small talk, and advising. Mutual help group phenotype was found to be related to a set of setting characteristics as well as to overall rated change of group members. The results are discussed in light of the significance of the phenotype construct for making behavior setting theory more relevant for social scientists.     

Incubated reminiscence effects

Reminiscence, the recall of material that was not successfully recalled on a previous attempt, was examined in three experiments as a function of the interest (incubation) interval. Incubation intervals inserted between successive recall tests resulted in increased reminiscence, but the effect was seen primarily in the first retested minute. Neither the duration of the initial test (1-4 min), nor the incubation activity (maze problems vs. rest) affected this incubated reminiscence effect. The results support models in which recall tests cause output interference, but incubation intervals reduce it.     

The debate over drug testing in the workplace: A novel opportunity for public scientific education

In several respects, American evidence law has an anti-scientific bias. A number of the admissibility and legal sufficiency rules in American evidence law reflect this bias. The assumption underlying the bias is that the typical citizen–-the potential juror–-is incapable of critically evaluating technical evidence. The results of national educational tests demonstrate that scientific illiteracy is widespread in the United States. However, the current controversy over drug testing presents forensic scientists with a unique opportunity to educate the average citizen about some of the rudiments of scientific proof. In the course of the debate, the scientific community can help familiarize the American public with such concepts as the limited nature of scientific findings, experimentation as the means of scientific validation, and the importance of proper test protocol. Perhaps more than any other scientific controversy, the debate over drug testing is of intense personal interest to the average citizen. This article pleads with the participants in the drug testing debate to capitalize on that interest and conduct their debate at a high level to aid the citizenry to develop a broader understanding of scientific evidence.     

Thoughts and feelings and things: A new psychiatric epistemology

Epistemology — the study of knowledge — is a philosophical discipline with close ties to psychiatry. When epistemologists address specific questions about how knowledge is actually realized by human beings, their philosophy must be informed by empirical studies of the sort psychiatrists now take up in a variety of forms. As this paper describes, psychiatrists can likewise improve their understanding of human psychology through a deeper appreciation of philosophical analysis in epistemology.The aim of this article is to introduce a unifying framework within which the experience from different approaches to psychiatry — (1) the conceptual schemas of cognitive psychiatry, (2) the mental structures of psychoanalytic psychiatry, (3) the categorical forms of existential psychiatry, and (4) the neural pathways of biological psychiatry — can all be applied productively to the central question of epistemology. By establishing a broad understanding of the problem of knowledge, this new view of epistemology is developed within the idiom of each psychiatric approach. In addressing themselves to a unitary problem, these diverse psychiatric approaches are themselves revealed, not as competing points of view, but as complementary views of a single subject. The result is a new epistemology that can not only bring the insights of psychiatry to philosophy, but can also contribute to the care of patients when psychiatrists bring this broader view to their clinical work.