Capital juror questionnaires in death-penalty cases: A study of attitudes,denials, and deceptions

The Sixth Amendment right to an “impartial jury” should guarantee fundamental fairness that in capital cases may literally be a matter of life and death. For ecological validity, the current study focuses on capital jury questionnaires (CJQs) employed in actual death-penalty cases. Study I examined 248 undergraduates and their responses to death-penalty relevant questions. As an MTurk investigation, Study II consisted of 259 community members potentially eligible for capital trial jury trials. Misrepresentations were operationalized as either denials (concealing their true views) or outright deceptions (dissembling the opposite viewpoint). Both studies found that CJQ items were very susceptible to both types of misrepresentation, irrespective of support-life or support-death views. Nearly 30% of undergraduates openly acknowledged that they would misrepresent close to half their CJQ responses. Overall, community members were much more willing to engage in denials and outright deceptions. The discussion focuses on how CJQs could be improved to promote candor about death-penalty views.     

Stimulus control depends on the subjective value of the outcome

Stimuli that provide information about likely future reinforcers tend to shift behavior, provided a reliable relation between the stimulus and the reinforcer can be discriminated. Stimuli that are apparently more reliable exert greater control over behavior. We asked how the subjective value (measured in terms of preference) of reinforcers associated with stimuli influences stimulus control. Five pigeons worked on a concurrent chains procedure in which half of all trials ended in a smaller reinforcer sooner, and the other half in a larger reinforcer later. In Signaled trials, the color and flash duration on the keys in the initial link signaled the outcome of the trial. In Conflicting probe trials, the color and the flash duration signaled conflicting information about the outcome of the trial. Choice in Signaled trials shifted toward the signaled outcome, but was never exclusive. In Conflicting probe trials, control was divided idiosyncratically between the 2 stimulus dimensions, but still favored the outcome with the higher subjective value. Thus, stimulus control depends not only on the perceived reliability of stimuli, but also on the subjective value of the outcome.     

The World at 7:00: Comparing the Experience of Situations Across 20 Countries

The purpose of this research is to quantitatively compare everyday situational experience around the world. Local collaborators recruited 5,447 members of college communities in 20 countries, who provided data via a Web site in 14 languages. Using the 89 items of the Riverside Situational Q‐sort (RSQ), participants described the situation they experienced the previous evening at 7:00 p.m. Correlations among the average situational profiles of each country ranged from r = .73 to r = .95; the typical situation was described as largely pleasant. Most similar were the United States/Canada; least similar were South Korea/Denmark. Japan had the most homogenous situational experience; South Korea, the least. The 15 RSQ items varying the most across countries described relatively negative aspects of situational experience; the 15 least varying items were more positive. Further analyses correlated RSQ items with national scores on six value dimensions, the Big Five traits, economic output, and population. Individualism, Neuroticism, Openness, and Gross Domestic Product yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance. Psychological research traditionally has paid more attention to the assessment of persons than of situations, a discrepancy that extends to cross‐cultural psychology. The present study demonstrates how cultures vary in situational experience in psychologically meaningful ways.     

Comparing Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Social Values Between Younger and Older Employees

Socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that older adults emphasize emotional goals and interpersonal closeness to a greater extent than do younger adults, suggesting that holding social work-related values (SWVs) may be beneficial to older employees. This project aimed at examining two dimensions of SWVs, intrinsic and extrinsic SWVs, and tested whether age and work situation would moderate their effects on self-rated job performance. A cross-sectional survey (Study 1, N = 357) and a 14-day experience sampling study (Study 2, N = 77) were conducted among Chinese managerial employees. Study 1 showed that the direct effect of intrinsic SWVs on self-rated job performance was stronger in older employees than in younger employees. Study 2 demonstrated that older employees who valued intrinsic SWVs while being in social situations performed much better than when they did not value intrinsic SWVs but being in social situations; however such positive effect was not shown in younger employees. Findings of this project reveal that the effect of SWVs varies across locus of effect (intrinsic versus extrinsic), age, and work situation. Among older employees, the positive effect of intrinsic SWVs is more crucial than that of extrinsic SWVs on self-rated job performance. Findings of this project imply that intrinsically rewarding incentives would be more effective in motivating older employees to reach peak performance.     

The Effects of a Female Role Model on Academic Performance and Persistence of Women in STEM Courses

Women are more likely to leave science, technology, engineering, and mathematics compared to men, in part because they lack similar role models such as peers, teaching assistants, and instructors. We examined the effect of a brief, scalable online intervention that consisted of a letter from a female role model who normalized concerns about belonging, presented time spent on academics as an investment, and exemplified overcoming challenges on academic performance and persistence. The intervention was implemented in introductory psychology (Study 1, N?=?258) and chemistry (Study 2, N?=?68) courses. Relative to the control group, the intervention group had higher grades and lower failing and withdrawal rates.     

The burden of filial piety: A qualitative study on caregiving motivations amongst family caregivers of patients with cancer in Singapore

Objective. This study explores (1) the motivations and challenges facing family caregiving for cancer in Singapore and (2) suggests a possible framework to guide culturally sensitive future work on caregivers.

Design. Twenty caregivers of patients being treated for cancer at a public hospital in Singapore were interviewed. A semi-structured interview format and inductive thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. Caregivers were asked about their motivations for caregiving and the challenges they faced.

Results. Caregivers’ motivations grouped into three categories: personal value and fulfilment, giving care because of societal expectations such as filial piety, and practical need. Challenges were grouped into interpersonal challenges, disclosure and finding balance. Caregivers with different primary motivations varied in their responses to these challenges. More autonomous caregivers cited learning points and reprioritised more effectively than less autonomous caregivers, who reported more internal conflict and less control over their situation.

Conclusions. In Singapore and Asia, sociocultural values of family caregiving are not uniformly experienced as positive, and may be burdensome for caregivers who give care primarily for extrinsic motivations. As family caregiving needs increase, targeted psychosocial support for caregivers with less autonomous behavioural orientations may pre-empt caregiver burnout and burden.