College Students’ Perceptions of and Responses to Cheating at Traditional,Modified, and Non-Honor System Institutions

To address growing concerns about academic integrity, college students (n?=?758) at honor system and non-honor system institutions were presented with eight scenarios to determine the influence of an honor system on their perceptions of and responses to academic dishonesty. Main effects for honor code status emerged. Students from traditional honor system schools considered the behaviors to be more dishonest, and were more likely to respond that they would report the incident when compared to students attending modified and non-honor system institutions. Findings suggest traditional honor systems, with specific rules and regulations in place, are more effective at cultivating academic integrity among students; modified honor systems may not be as effective as previous research suggests.     

Theorizing Novel and Emerging Drug Use: A Motivational Typology

ABSTRACT

Novel and emerging psychoactive drugs (NEPDs), a research-based classification referencing a wide range of natural plant-derived substances and synthetic compounds, have garnered considerable academic attention in recent years. Most of the scientific literature on NEPDs presents definitional overviews of specific substances in terms of their chemical composition and toxicology or socio-legal commentary. This study presents a motivational typology of NEPD use derived from interview data from a sample of offenders participating in jail-based drug treatment. Findings indicate four primary motives for NEPD use (experimentation, drug alternative, peer influence, and availability) and inform discussion for additional research and policy implications.     

THERAPIST DEFENSIVENESS AND MARITAL THERAPY PROCESS AND OUTCOME

Abstract

This study examined the effect of couple socioeconomic status (SES); pretherapy marital adjustment; and therapist, husband, and wife defensiveness during the third session of marital therapy on posttherapy marital adjustment. Participants were 22 therapists and 88 couples. Each therapist treated 4 couples, 2 from the middle SES level and 2 from the lower SES level. Path analyses revealed that for husbands higher marital satisfaction before therapy was associated with higher adjustment at the end of therapy, but defensive therapist behavior during therapy was associated with lower posttherapy adjustment. A similar pattern was found for wives, but this should be interpreted with caution owing to potential dependencies in the wives' posttherapy adjustment scores. Neither SES nor pretherapy adjustment predicted therapist defensive behavior in therapy, and SES did not predict marital therapy outcome variance. Results suggest that therapist defensive behavior may reflect a style or characteristic of some marital therapists.     

Emotion dysregulation as a partial mediator between reinforcement sensitivity and posttraumatic stress symptoms

The reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) asserts that three brain subsystems (i.e., the Behavioral Approach System [BAS], the Behavioral Inhibition System [BIS], and the Fight–Flight–Freeze System [FFFS]) underlie individual variations seen in personality and psychopathology. Though revised by Gray and McNaughton (2000), many researchers continue to utilize the original, and now outdated, theory of reinforcement sensitivity. Additionally, while there is an abundance of research investigating the association between reinforcement sensitivity and psychopathology, the underlying mechanisms between these constructs remain largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to test whether emotion dysregulation acted as a partial mediator between FFFS sensitivity and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) under the revised RST framework. Data was collected from 282 undergraduate students at a Midwestern university who experienced at least one potentially traumatic event. Bootstrapping was used to test the significance of the indirect effect (e.g., amount of mediation) of FFFS sensitivity on PTSS. The indirect effect was significant (2000 bootstrapped CI_95 = .11−.25), indicating that emotion dysregulation partially mediated the relationship between FFFS sensitivity and PTSS. More specifically, individuals with high FFFS sensitivity reported higher levels of emotion dysregulation, which in turn was associated with greater PTSS scores.     

Sequential analysis as a method of feedback for family therapy process

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between therapist verbal behavior and family cooperation and resistance during the second session of family therapy with juvenile delinquents. Sequential analysis was used to investigate the impact of one therapist's behavior on family resistance and cooperation in a sample of 12 families. The results of the sequential analysis revealed that therapist “support” and “teach” behaviors were associated with significant increases in the likelihood of family cooperation. The study provides an example of how sequential analysis can be used to inform family therapists about the impact of their behavior on families.     

Examining the Role of Similarity Coefficients and the Value of Behavioural Themes in Attempts to Link Serial Arson Offences

When relying on crime scene behaviours to link serial crimes, linking accuracy may be influenced by the measure used to assess across‐crime similarity and the types of behaviours included in the analysis. To examine these issues, the present study compared the level of linking accuracy achieved by using the simple matching index (S) to that of the commonly used Jaccard's coefficient (J) across themes of arson behaviour. The data consisted of 42 crime scene behaviours, separated into three behavioural themes, which were exhibited by 37 offenders across 114 solved arsons. The results of logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analysis indicate that, with the exception of one theme where S was more effective than J at discriminating between linked and unlinked crimes, no significant differences emerged between the two similarity measures. In addition, our results suggest that thematically unrelated behaviours can be used to link crimes with the same degree of accuracy as thematically related behaviours, potentially calling into the question the importance of theme‐based approaches to behavioural linkage analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's understanding and production of verbal irony in family conversations

This study examined how children use and understand various forms of irony (sarcasm, hyperbole, understatement, and rhetorical questions) in the context of naturalistic positive and negative family conversations in the home. Instances of ironic language in conversations between mothers, fathers, and their two children (M_ages=6.33 and 4.39 years) were recorded during six 90‐min observations for each of 39 families. Children's responses to others' ironic utterances were coded for their understanding of meaning and conversational function. Mothers were especially likely to ask rhetorical questions and to use ironic language in conflictual contexts. In contrast, fathers used hyperbole and understatement as frequently as rhetorical questions, and employed ironic language in both positive and conflictual contexts. Children also showed evidence of a nascent ability to use ironic language, especially hyperbole and rhetorical questions. Family members used rhetorical questions and understatement proportionately more often in a negative interaction context. Finally, older siblings understood irony better than younger siblings, and both children's responses revealed some understanding of ironic language, particularly sarcasm and rhetorical questions. Overall, the results suggest that family conversations in the home may be one important context for the development of children's use and understanding of ironic language.     

Deciding in the best interest of clients with dementia: the experience of public guardians

We conducted an in-depth interview study of public guardians in three local jurisdictions in the state of Maryland to explore the decision-making process utilized by court-appointed public guardians making medical and EOL care decisions on behalf of their clients with dementia. Overall, public guardians appeared to make their decisions in the context of relevant ethical principles and relevant case law and state statute, and the basis upon which they made informed decisions was dependent on their training and experience. The stated goal of public guardians is to make decisions that they believe are in the best interest of their clients. In the case of a healthcare decision, their goal is to maximize quality of life; and in the case of an EOL care decision, their goal is to minimize pain and suffering. In general, public guardians gathered information in order to identify previous preferences of their now-incapacitated clients, so that they could develop a preference profile to assist both an initial decision on whether an individual ought to have a court-appointed public guardian, and with healthcare and EOL decisions once an appointment was made. When guardians were unable to develop a preference profile for a particular client, they relied on past decisions in similar situations. Healthcare and EOL decisions were most often triggered by a recommendation by the client's healthcare provider. Once a decision-point was identified, the public guardian considered the risks and benefits of the proposed intervention in light of the client's current condition. At times the guardians reviewed informational resources such as textbooks and the Internet. In addition, most guardians sought advice from a medical consultant who is available to all public guardians in Maryland. Some guardians sought the advice of this medical consultant only when faced with more complex decisions. Guardians challenged physicians' recommendations when they believed the physicians were recommending an intervention that was not in the best interest of the client--that is, they advocated against either overtreatment or undertreatment. Ultimately, guardians took particularly difficult issues to the court and obtained a judge's opinion.