Critical issues in psychological autopsy studies

This paper reviews research based on the psychological autopsy (PA) method applied to the study of suicide. It evidences the presence of a number of methodological problems. Shortcomings concern sampling biases in the selection of control subjects, confounding influences of extraneous variables, and reliability of the assessment instruments. The absence of homogeneity among studies in the procedure employed, as well as the lack of defined guidelines for performing this type of inquiry are emphasized. Questions needing empirical investigation in the future are pointed out. It is concluded that the validity and reliability of findings emerging from the use of this method of investigation would benefit from a standardization of its application.     

The recognition of phonologically assimilated words does not depend on specific language experience

In a series of 5 experiments, we investigated whether the processing of phonologically assimilated utterances is influenced by language learning. Previous experiments had shown that phonological assimilations, such as /lean#bacon/ → [leam bacon], are compensated for in perception. In this article, we investigated whether compensation for assimilation can occur without experience with an assimilation rule using automatic event-related potentials. Our first experiment indicated that Dutch listeners compensate for a Hungarian assimilation rule. Two subsequent experiments, however, failed to show compensation for assimilation by both Dutch and Hungarian listeners. Two additional experiments showed that this was due to the acoustic properties of the assimilated utterance, confirming earlier reports that phonetic detail is important in compensation for assimilation. Our data indicate that compensation for assimilation can occur without experience with an assimilation rule, in line with phonetic-phonological theories that assume that speech production is influenced by speech-perception abilities.     

Effects of objective and subjective account components on forgiving

The authors explored the effects of the components of a harm-doer's account of her transgression on the victims' emotional reactions to the transgression and to the character traits that she attributes to the harm-doer. Participants were 480 people whom the authors asked to imagine an incident in which they were harmed by the careless behavior of a friend. Subsequently, the authors offered participants an account of the harm-doer. In a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects design, the authors manipulated 5 account components: Admitting Fault, Admitting Damage, Expressing Remorse, Asking for Pardon, and Offering Compensation. The authors measured the participants' perceptions of these components. Results indicated that (a) the subjective perception of account components occurs schematically so that components are implicitly perceived without being objectively present, (b) objective components affect victims' reactions via subjective perceptions of these components, (c) personality factors (Irreconcilability, Interpersonal Trust, and Trait Anger) affect victims' reactions directly. Finally, certain configurations of account components are more effective than others. Specifically, asking for pardon had an effect on forgiving only when it was combined with an acknowledgment of the damage and a compensation offer. This result suggests that in this situation, the victim perceives a harm-doer's asking for pardon without the other components as an insincere apology.     

Reference-frame misalignment and cardinal direction judgments: group differences and strategies

In 3 experiments, the authors examined how misalignment of egocentric and exocentric reference frames affects cardinal direction judgments. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated large differences in the accuracy and speed with which 104 less experienced and 7 experienced navigators made cardinal direction judgments. Reference-frame misalignment was associated with large performance decrements. The extent of these decrements diminished as ability and experience increased: however, even experienced navigators showed decrements when reference frames were misaligned. In Experiment 3, the authors used 55 college students to examine the individual subtasks of a common strategy for cardinal direction judgments and to isolate the effects of reference-frame misalignment to a particular subtask of this strategy. The tasks and strategies studied in this article can be applied in the development of navigational training and interfaces.     

Universal sex differences in the desire for sexual variety: tests from 52 nations, 6 continents,and 13 islands

Evolutionary psychologists have hypothesized that men and women possess both long-term and short-term mating strategies, with men's short-term strategy differentially rooted in the desire for sexual variety. In this article, findings from a cross-cultural survey of 16,288 people across 10 major world regions (including North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia) demonstrate that sex differences in the desire for sexual variety are culturally universal throughout these world regions. Sex differences were evident regardless of whether mean, median, distributional, or categorical indexes of sexual differentiation were evaluated. Sex differences were evident regardless of the measures used to evaluate them. Among contemporary theories of human mating, pluralistic approaches that hypothesize sex differences in the evolved design of short-term mating provide the most compelling account of these robust empirical findings.     

Vicarious traumatisation of counsellors and effects on their workplaces

The literature on therapists' reactions to clients' traumatic material is Critically reviewed. The various attempts within this relatively new literature to conceptualise this phenomenon include countertransference, compassion fatigue and vicarious traumatisation. The limited research evidence is evaluated and found to support anecdotal accounts by trauma therapists. Empathic engagement with trauma survivors is necessary for effective psychotherapeutic intervention. However, empathic engagement also makes therapists vulnerable to the detrimental effects of vicarious trauma, with consequent negative effects on individual counsellor effectiveness and organisational dynamics in the workplace.     

Stimulus-governance and the hyperkinetic syndrome

The hypothesis that hyperkinetic children are stimulusgoverned was tested. In a sample of 39 nonmedicated hyperkinetic boys 26 were found to be stimulus-governed. In a control sample of 20 nonmedicated boys 6 were found to be stimulus-governed. An association was found between the hyperkinetic syndrome and stimulusgovernance. The hypothesis is raised that response to methylphenidate is related to stimulusgovernance. Several issues raised by the research are discussed.This research was supported in part by a grant from Bloemendaal Psychiatric Hospital, The Hague, The Netherlands. The authors wish to thank Mr. E. M. Ockhorst, for constructing the KFA-testing equipment, and Mr. R. Reyneart, for helping with the computer analysis. An earlier draft of the paper was presented at the European Conference of Neuropsychology, sponsored by the International Neuropsychology Society, at Oxford University, England.     

Clues to aural discrimination

Five measures of the items of the Multiple-Choice Intelligibility Test were obtained: apparent aural similarity of the four words available to a listener on hearing a stimulus, interconsonantal differences among the prevocalic portions of these words, phonemic discrepancies among these words, distinctive feature differences among these words, and the pooled discrimination score of the four words that were available to the responder on hearing the stimulus. The last score was made the target in a multiple correlation problem, and the relative contribution, combined and separately, of the four remaining measures to the target measure was determined. These four measures accounted for approximately 45% of the variance among the scores of discrimination. The strongest contributors were apparent aural similarity of the available responses and the phonemic discrepancy among the available responses.     

Judging risk behaviour and risk preference: The role of the evaluative connotation of risk terms

Two experiments investigate the impact of the evaluative connotation of risk terms on the judgment of risk behaviour and on risk preference. In the first experiment we focus on (1) the evaluation congruence of the risk terms with a general risk norm and (2) with subjects' individual risk preference, and its effects on the extremity of judgments of risk behaviour. In the second experiment we address (3) the effects of evaluative connotation of risk terms on risk preference. In the first experiment subjects were presented with four decision problems, each with a risky and a cautious decision option, and were required to judge options. Results showed that the judged discrepancy between the risky and cautious option was larger on scales which were evaluatively congruent with the general risk norm for that specific decision problem or with subjects' individual preference. More specificly, in decision problems for which there was considerable consensus about the risk-norm judgments were more extreme on scales which were congruent with the risk norm, in those problems lacking a clear-cut risk-norm judgments were more extreme on scales congruent with subjects' individual risk preference. In the second experiment we studied the reverse relation between the evaluative connotation of risk terms and risk preference. This experiment demonstrates that using evaluatively biased risk terms can affect risk preference. Using terms which imply a positive evaluation of risk-taking and a negative evaluation of risk avoidance led to increased risk preference, and vice versa. Results are discussed in the context of accentuation theory.