Quasi-realism and fundamental moral error1

A common first reaction to expressivist and quasi-realist theories is the thought that, if these theories are right, there's some objectionable sense in which we can't be wrong about morality. This worry turns out to be surprisingly difficult to make stick—an account of moral error as instability under improving changes provides the quasi-realist with the resources to explain many of our concerns about moral error. The story breaks down, though, in the case of fundamental moral error. This is where the initial worry finally sticks—quasi-realism tells me that I can't be fundamentally wrong about morality, though others can.     

Predictors of aggression in Southeast Asian female prisoners

Although aggression is universal, few studies examine violence from an Asian perspective, and even fewer consider female offenders from Southeast Asia. The current study examined whether correlates of aggression in western male offenders are similarly effective for predicting aggression in female inmates (n = 114) from a local prison in Singapore. Aggression was measured using the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire (comprising dimensions of physical and verbal aggression, anger and hostility) which we sought to predict from measures of impulsivity, general personality traits (neuroticism, agreeableness), psychopathy, and empathy. Impulsivity and agreeableness were significant predictors of self-reported physical and verbal aggression and anger, whereas neuroticism contributed to anger. Neuroticism and psychopathy were significant predictors of hostility. Empathy did not significantly predict any of the four aggression dimensions. Personality, impulsivity and psychopathy appear fair predictors of aggression for female offenders from Southeast Asia, just as they are for the western male offenders.     

Trainee and Client Experiences of Therapeutic Assessment in a Required Graduate Course: A Qualitative Analysis

Surveys indicate that practice and training in psychological assessment, and personality assessment (PA) to a lesser degree, has been stable or increasing over the past quarter-century. However, its future arguably remains threatened due to changes in doctoral training programs and beliefs in the field concerning the utility of PA for treatment success. To increase interest in and use of PA, studies of training methods that include trainees' perspectives are needed. This study evaluated the experiences of 10 graduate trainees and their clients who were trained in and conducted a brief Therapeutic Assessment (TA). Qualitative responses to a self-evaluation administered post-TA were coded using directed content analysis. Results indicated that trainees viewed TA/PA as having clinical utility; they had positive feelings about TA/PA, and they desired or intended to use or continue learning about TA/PA. Clients' responses reflected positive feelings about the TA, having gained new self-awareness or understanding, and having a positive relationship with the assessor. The findings suggest that teaching PA from a TA perspective could produce positive benefits for psychology trainees.     

Neurocognitive assessment of emotional context sensitivity

Sensitivity to emotional context is an emerging construct for characterizing adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation, but few measurement approaches exist. The current study combined behavioral and neurocognitive measures to assess context sensitivity in relation to self-report measures of adaptive emotional flexibility and well-being. Sixty-six adults completed an emotional go/no-go task using happy, fearful, and neutral faces as go and no-go cues, while EEG was recorded to generate event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting attentional selection and discrimination (N170) and cognitive control (N2). Context sensitivity was measured as the degree of emotional facilitation or disruption in the go/no-go task and magnitude of ERP response to emotion cues. Participants self-reported on emotional flexibility, anxiety, and depression. Overall participants evidenced emotional context sensitivity, such that when happy faces were go stimuli, accuracy improved (greater behavioral facilitation), whereas when fearful faces were no-go stimuli, errors increased (disrupted behavioral inhibition). These indices predicted emotional flexibility and well-being: Greater behavioral facilitation following happy cues was associated with lower depression and anxiety, whereas greater disruption in behavioral inhibition following fearful cues was associated with lower flexibility. ERP indices of context sensitivity revealed additional associations: Greater N2 to fear go cues was associated with less anxiety and depression, and greater N2 and N170 to happy and fear no-go cues, respectively, were associated with greater emotional flexibility and well-being. Results suggest that pleasant and unpleasant emotions selectively enhance and disrupt components of context sensitivity, and that behavioral and ERP indices of context sensitivity predict flexibility and well-being.     

Personality and gang embeddedness

Gang membership can be transient or persistent, and most persons who participate in such groups at one point in their lives grow out of the lifestyle. The personality dynamics driving gang membership are poorly understood, although the five-factor model of personality has proved an effective way to understanding many types of antisocial behaviour. Using dichotomous self-nomination 152 remand and sentenced participants incarcerated within a general prison in London, UK indicated their gang embeddedness as youths, prior to custody, within prison, and as an intent following release. This enabled behavioural intention to be incorporated into the model as well as historical factors. Constructs derived from a variety of personality measures and constructs were used to predict overall reported gang embeddedness. These predictors reduced to two underlying dimensions: personal resilience and antisocial personality. Path analysis showed the antisocial personality dimension predicted previous convictions and degree of gang embeddedness, whereas resilience did not. The direct and indirect effects of the composite antisocial personality dimension explained 50% of the overall observed variance in gang embeddedness. We suggest that gang membership may reflect normal assortative processes within the members of such groups.     

Are social networking profiles reliable indicators of sensational interests?

Sensational interests are sometimes reported on the personal profiles of social networking web sites such as Facebook. Can these reports be validated against established psychometric tools used by forensic psychologists? Given that web sites and personal profiles can be used as evidence of a person’s ‘character’ in legal contexts, evaluating their reliability and validity is important. This study evaluated the reliability of extracting data from the interests and activities sections of Facebook profiles, linking them to general personality and Sensational Interests Questionnaire (SIQ) scores. Data from 694 user profiles (N = 352 males) were linked to the Big Five personality traits, age, and educational attainment. Three independent raters coded the number of sensational topics reported by a user in each section. In Poisson regression analyses, higher SIQ Violent Occultism scores predicted a larger count of sensational interests, and sensational activities in males only. Higher SIQ Militarism scores predicted a larger number of sensational interests in males, but a smaller number in females. Although the number of sensational interests reported by social networking users on their personal profiles is potentially informative, further research should investigate gender differences, and why females with greater Militarism scores are less likely to report what these specific interests are.     

Habit and skill learning in schizophrenia: evidence of normal striatal processing with abnormal cortical input

Different forms of nondeclarative learning involve regionally specific striatal circuits. The motor circuit (involving the putamen) has been associated with motor–skill learning and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) circuit (involving the caudate) has been associated with cognitive–habit learning. Efforts to differentiate functional striatal circuits within patient samples have been limited. Previous studies have provided mixed results regarding striatal-dependent nondeclarative learning deficits in patients with schizophrenia. In this study, a cognitive–habit learning task (probabilistic weather prediction) was used to assess the DLPFC circuit and a motor–skill learning task (pursuit rotor) was used to assess the motor circuit in 35 patients with schizophrenia and 35 normal controls. Patients with schizophrenia displayed significant performance differences from controls on both nondeclarative tasks; however, cognitive–habit learning rate in patients did not differ from controls. There were performance and learning-rate differences on the motor–skill learning task between the whole sample of patients and controls, however, analysis of a subset of patients and controls matched on general intellectual level eliminated learning rate differences between groups. The abnormal performance offset between patients with schizophrenia and controls in the absence of learning rate differences suggests that abnormal cortical processing provides altered input to normal striatal circuitry.     

Research Ethics Board (REB) Members’ Preparation for,and Perceived Knowledge of Research Ethics

The Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS) was first developed to establish a standard of practice in research ethics by the three federal agencies responsible for funding institutional research in Canada: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). In 2010, a second edition of the policy, known as the TCPS 2, was released with updated information and expanded coverage of research ethics issues. According to the TCPS 2, the Agencies’ mandate is “to promote research that is conducted according to the highest ethical standards,” and the TCPS 2 serves as a benchmark for this with respect for human dignity as its underlying value. Research institutions receiving Agency funding are to comply with this policy statement by forming Research Ethics Boards (REBs) to review all research involving human participants. The intention behind this review requirement is to provide a proportionate assessment of the benefit-to-risk ratio of the research, and in that process, to safeguard “respect for persons”, express a “concern for welfare”, and uphold “justice” (CIHR, SSHRC, NSERC 2010, p. 8). Research may not proceed until ethics approval is granted by an institution’s REB. The current study evaluates REB members’ perspectives on their knowledge of research ethics, and juxtaposes these perceptions with those of researchers. Specifically, we are interested in the extent to which REB members with less experience read the TCPS 2, and whether those with less experience have decreased confidence in their ethics knowledge.