Sex stereotypes and responses to juvenile delinquency

On the basis of our current knowledge of sex stereotypes and their influence on judgments about women and men, two conflicting hypotheses about reactions to delinquent behavior by men and women, or by boys and girls, can be put forward. First, because crime is mainly masculine, responsibility for criminal behavior will be more strongly attributed to a boy's nature than to a girl's, thereby leading to more severe punishment for boys. Second, deviations from a stereotype lead to negative evaluations, and thus should lead to harsher punishment for girls. The first study described, based on a field experiment with 709 adolescent and 403 adult subjects, was conducted to determine whether different sanctions were applied to boys and girls who engaged in identical delinquent behavior. The results show that for boys, more severe punishment was preferred for aggressive behavior, and for girls, more punishment for noncriminal delinquent behavior. In a second study (N=43), it was hypothesized that these differences in sanctioning corresponded with the degree of perceived masculinity of the delinquent behavior. This hypothesis was confirmed. A model shows how sex stereotypes about delinquent behavior lead to sex-related difference in attributions, which in turn lead to differences in punishment.     

Stimulating the demand for dental care: An application of Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action

Ajzen and Fishbein's attitude-behaviour model was applied to the problem of stimulating the demand for dental care, Subjects were 329 members of Amsterdam health insurance companies. They had not received regular dental treatment and/or a certificate of dental fitness for at least two and a half years. Applying for treatment and acquiring a dental certificate were the behavioural measures. The effectiveness of the communication based on Ajzen and Fishbein's model was compared with the effectiveness of messages based on the Health-Belief model and the notion that knowledge of Rights and Obligations is a prerequisite for seeking dental care. Results lend support to the validity of the Ajzen and Fishbein model. Relationships between the components of the model are moderate to strong, both before and after subjects were exposed to the message. The message proved effective in changing beliefs about seeking dental treatment. Ajzen and Fishbein's claim that their approach has exclusive merits, however, was refuted. A differential effectiveness of the three messages was absent. In all, 47.4 per cent applied for treatment. No control subjects applied. Fifteen months later 70 per cent of the applicants had obtained a dental certificate. Contrary to our expectations, a condition of no-message application-form- only proved equally effective as the message conditions.     

What happens to information to be suppressed in working-memory tasks? Short and long term effects

The study explored, from an individual differences point of view, what happens to information to be suppressed in a working-memory task at short and long term. In particular, it was examined whether control mechanisms of irrelevant information in working memory imply their complete elimination from working memory or just the modulation of their activation. To this end, we compared the fate of irrelevant information in groups of subjects with high and low reading comprehension (Experiments 1 and 2) and subjects with high and low working memory (Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4). All the experiments presented a working-memory task devised by De Beni, Palladino, Pazzaglia, and Cornoldi (1998), which required participants to process lists of words, to tap when a word from a particular category was presented, and then to recall only the last items in each list. Results confirmed that participants with high reading comprehension also have higher working memory and make less intrusion errors due to irrelevant items that have to be processed but then discarded. Furthermore, it was found that participants with low working memory have slightly better implicit (Experiment 1) and explicit memory (Experiments 3 and 4) of highly activated irrelevant information. Nevertheless, in a long-term recognition test, participants with high and low reading comprehension/working memory presented a similar pattern of memory for different types of irrelevant information (Experiment 2), whereas in a short-term memory recognition test, low-span participants presented a facilitation effect in the time required for the recognition of highly activated irrelevant information (Experiment 4). It was concluded that efficient working-memory performance is related to the temporary reduction of activation of irrelevant information but does not imply its elimination from memory.     

Présentation

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Recent Suicidal Ideation Among Patients in an Inner City Emergency Department

The rates and associated features of suicidal ideation among 5,641 patients seeking routine, nonsuicide related care in an inner‐city emergency department were examined. Approximately 8% of patients seeking routine care in the emergency department reported some form of suicidal ideation within the past 2 weeks. Suicidal ideation was common in individuals who were single with poorer mental health, had higher depression, and had received some drug or alcohol treatment in the past 3 months or had used cocaine or marijuana in the past 30 days. Improved screening procedures could help to identify routine care patients who are at risk for suicide.     

Distinguishing between level and impact of rumination as predictors of depressive symptoms: An experience sampling study

Rumination—repetitively thinking about one's emotional state, its causes and consequences—exacerbates negative mood and plays an important role in the aetiology and maintenance of depression. Yet, it is unclear whether increased vulnerability to depression is associated with simply how much a person ruminates, or the short-term impact rumination has on a person's negative mood. In the current study, we distinguish between the level versus the impact of rumination, and we examine how each uniquely predicts changes in depressive symptoms over time in an undergraduate sample. Using experience sampling, we assessed students’ (N = 101) subjective experiences of positive and negative affect and their use of rumination and distraction in daily life for seven days. Participants also reported their depressive symptoms before and after the experience sampling. Increases in depressive symptoms over the week were predicted by how much people ruminated, but not by its impact on negative mood.