Rodney King and O. J. Revisited: The Impact of Race and Defendant Empathy Induction on Judicial Decisions

White university students participated in a study to investigate the impact of defendant race and empathetic induction on a subsequent juror decision-making task. Participants read a passage involving a Black or a White defendant in a criminal case. They were subsequently induced to feel no empathy, low empathy, or high empathy for the defendant. When compared to participants in the low- and control empathy conditions, those in the high-empathy condition reported greater target empathy, made attributions that were more situational, and assigned more lenient punishments. The results also indicate that group membership can moderate the impact of empathetic induction. When compared to the participants in the Black defendant condition, those in the White defendant condition reported greater target empathy, made attributions that were more situational, and assigned more lenient punishments. Implications for both empathy and judicial decision-making research are discussed.     

The automatic evaluation of novel stimuli

From classic theory and research in psychology, we distill a broad theoretical statement that evaluative responding can be immediate, unintentional, implicit, stimulus based, and linked directly to approach and avoidance motives. This statement suggests that evaluative responses should be elicited by novel, nonrepresentational stimuli (e.g., abstract art, "foreign" words). We tested this hypothesis through combining the best features of relevant automatic–affect research paradigms. We first obtained explicit evaluative ratings of novel stimuli. From these, we selected normatively positive and negative stimuli to use as primes in a sequential priming paradigm. Two experiments using this paradigm demonstrated that briefly presented novel prime stimuli were evaluated automatically, as they facilitated responses to subsequently presented target stimuli of the same valence just as much as did pictures or names of real objects. A final experiment revealed that exposure to novel stimuli produces muscular predispositions to approach or avoid them.     

Perfectionism, acne and appearance concerns

This study investigated the relationship between perfectionism and two aspects of appearance worry: acne-related concerns and dysmorphic concerns. One-hundred and sixty five female university students completed measures of three facets of perfectionism: self-oriented, other-oriented and socially prescribed [Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991a). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: conceptualization, assessment and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456–470], general psychopathology (GHQ-28), acne health related quality of life [Girman, C. J., Hartmaier, S., Thiboutot, D., Johnson, J., Barter, B., DeMunro-Mercon, & Waldstreicher, J. (1996). Evaluating health-related quality of life in patients with facial acne: development of a self-administered questionnaire for clinical trials. Quality of Life Research, 5, 481–490] and dysmorphic concerns [Oostuizen, P., Lambert, T., & Castle, D.J. (1998). Dysmorphic concern: prevalence and associations with clinical variables. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 32, 129–132]. Multiple regression analyses showed that, after controlling for general psychopathology, a high level of socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with a greater tendency to be concerned about acne in particular and appearance in general.     

The dimensions of stage theories

Stage theories are commonly used to represent the structure of cognitive processes in the domains of cognitive processing and cognitive development. Hierarchical unidimensional theories consisting of a single sequence of stages through which development proceeds in one direction only have predominated. However, a review of stage theories revealed that a two-dimensional, interactive (multidimensional) structure is warranted. Particularly in the area of cognitive development, results of research have supported subdivision of the stages of prominent unidimensional theories. Following this trend a small number of theorists have developed multidimensional theories, most of which consist of a sequence of stages in which each stage contains a number of subsidiary stages or levels. The emergence of a similar trend in other domains is examined, and the prospects of using an existing multidimensional framework to enable future comparisons and integration of different stage theories is explored.     

What's in a Forename? Cue Familiarity and Stereotypical Thinking

Recent research has characterized categorical thinking as an essential component of the person perception process. Yet relatively little is known about the myriad factors that moderate the accessibility of this mode of thought. With regard to this we hypothesized that the subjective familiarity of a person's forename may play an important role in triggering categorical thinking. Specifically, category-based knowledge may be more accessible when triggered by familiar than unfamiliar forenames. We report the results of three experiments that supported this prediction. Relative to unfamiliar names, participants required less time to verify the gender of familiar forenames (Experiment 1) and semantic priming was more pronounced when stereotype-related material followed the presentation of familiar than unfamiliar items (Experiment 2). Also, familiar forenames attracted more extreme gender-based evaluations than their unfamiliar counterparts (Experiment 3). We consider the theoretical and methodological implications of these findings for a variety of issues in person perception.     

Longer term effects of stimulant treatments for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Of pharmacological options available for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), stimulant medications are the most studied, the most commonly used, the most effective, and the first-line choice for treatment. Evidence of the short-term efficacy of methylphenidate (MPH) and other stimulants as well as behavioral treatments in the management of symptoms of ADHD is abundant This paper reviews therapeutic trials with a duration or follow-up period of 12 months or more and evaluates the longer term outcomes of available treatments for ADHD. The trials were reported by Ialongo et al. (1993), Horn et al. (1991), Schachar, Tannock, Cunningham, and Corkum (1997), Gillberg et al. (1997), Hechtman and Abikoff (1995), and the National Institute of Mental Health (MTA Cooperative Group, 1999a, 1999b).