Predicting rape events: The influence of intimate partner violence history,condom use resistance,and heavy drinking

Sexual aggression perpetration is a public health epidemic, and burgeoning research aims to delineate risk factors for individuals who perpetrate completed rape. The current study investigated physical and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) history, coercive condom use resistance (CUR), and heavy episodic drinking (HED) as prospective risk factors for rape perpetration. Young adult men (N = 430) ages 21–30 completed background measures as well as follow‐up assessments regarding rape events perpetrated over the course of 3 months. Negative binomial regression with log link function was utilized to examine whether these risk factors interacted to prospectively predict completed rape. There was a significant interaction between physical IPV and HED predicting completed rape; men with high HED and greater physical IPV histories perpetrated more completed rapes during follow‐up than men with low HED at the same level of physical IPV. Moreover, psychological IPV and coercive CUR interacted to predict completed rape such that men with high coercive CUR and greater psychological IPV histories perpetrated more completed rapes throughout the follow‐up period than men with low coercive CUR at the same level of psychological IPV. Findings suggest targets for intervention efforts and highlight the need to understand the topography of different forms of aggression perpetration.     

Can We Use Hare’s Psychopathy Model within Forensic and Non-Forensic Populations? An Empirical Investigation

Although psychopathy construct (Self-Report Psychopathy Scale–Short Form [SRP–SF]) was assessed among various samples, prior research did not investigate whether the model proposed by Hare and colleagues can be used to capture psychopathy scores derived from forensic and nonforensic populations. The main objective of the current study was to test dimensionality, construct validity, and factorial invariance of the SRP–SF within prison (n = 730) and student (n = 2,506) samples. Our results indicate that the SRP–SF measure cannot be used in the same way within forensic and nonforensic samples, which may be due to the inclusion of criminal/antisocial traits as an integral part of psychopathy.     

‘It’s bit of an eye opener’ – A qualitative study of women’s attitudes towards tanning,sun protection and a facial morphing intervention

Objective: Skin cancer is to a large degree behaviourally preventable, meaning that evidence-based interventions have scope to make a difference. Previous research indicates that appearance-based interventions such as facial morphing may be more effective than health-based interventions, and that it can personalise the issue of skin cancer.

Method: This study examined attitudes to UV exposure, as well as reactions to a facial morphing intervention, through interviews with 25 women aged 35 years and older.

Results: Thematic analysis revealed four themes; two regarding attitudes to UV exposure (confusion and contradiction, and change and continuity), and two relating to the facial morphing intervention (negative reactions to UV-exposed photo and positive outcomes of the intervention). Women experienced a number of barriers to adopting safer behaviour in the sun; their current attitudes to UV exposure had been shaped by available information sources throughout their ageing. They expressed negative evaluations of the UV photo, which fed directly into motivation to reduce UV exposure.

Conclusions: These results can be interpreted along the lines of goal-directed behaviour. This type of intervention has the potential to reduce UV exposure among this participant group, something that needs to be further investigated with randomised control trials.     

Identification from CCTV: Assessing police super‐recogniser ability to spot faces in a crowd and susceptibility to change blindness

Police worldwide regularly review closed‐circuit television (CCTV) evidence in investigations. This research found that London police experts who work in a full‐time “Super‐Recogniser Unit” and front line police identifiers regularly making suspect identifications from CCTV possessed superior unfamiliar face recognition ability and, with higher levels of confidence, outperformed controls at locating actors in a bespoke Spot the Face in a Crowd Test. Police were also less susceptible to change blindness errors and possessed higher levels of conscientiousness and lower levels of neuroticism and openness. Controls who took part in Spot the Face in a Crowd Test actor familiarisation training outperformed untrained controls, suggesting this exercise might enhance identification of persons of interest in real investigations. This research supports an accumulating body of evidence demonstrating that international police forces may benefit from deploying officers with superior face recognition ability to roles such as CCTV review, as these officers may be the most likely to identify persons of interest.     

Professors’ Behaviors and Attributes that Promote U.S. Women’s Success in Male-Dominated Academic Majors: Results from a Mixed Methods Study

High rates of attrition of women from male-dominated academic majors may stem from both individual-level personal attributes (e.g., lower confidence in skills; Sax et al. 2015) and non-supportive environmental factors (e.g., chilly climate; Blickenstaff 2005; Hill et al. 2010). Grounded in social cognitive career theory (Lent et al. 1994), the present study utilized a mixed methods approach to identify faculty behaviors and attributes that support women in male-dominated majors and help to prevent attrition. In Study 1, data from eight focus groups involving 23 senior women in male-dominated majors at a mid-sized U.S. Midwestern university were coded to identify common themes exploring why certain professors’ behaviors/attributes are useful to women in male-dominated majors. Results indicated that professors’ behaviors led to learning experiences that helped women create personal connections within departments and provided them with department or career-related information as well as opportunities to gauge/demonstrate their skills to combat the idea that they fit the incompetent-woman stereotype. In Study 2, survey data (n = 65) examined professors’ support, academic advising time, and percentage of female faculty within a department as buffers against the negative effects of sexism on women’s academic achievement, physical health, and social belongingness. Sexist events in the department were associated with women’s reduced sense of belonging, but academic advising time served as a buffer of this association. Overall, our results indicated that proximal environments are important and that professors’ behaviors that support women without singling them out were most helpful.     

Cutting Deep: The Transformative Power of Art in the Anatomy Lab

On Tuesday evenings at New York University School of Medicine (NYUSoM), the anatomy lab is transformed into an art studio. Medical students gather with a spirit of creative enterprise and a unique goal: to turn anatomy into art. They are participants in Art & Anatomy, an innovative drawing course within the Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine (MSPHM)—a component of NYUSoM, which offers elective courses across a range of interdisciplinary topics in medical humanities. Art & Anatomy has had approximately four hundred fifty participants since its inception in 2009. The educational intention of the course is to use drawing as an active mode of learning that enhances visual-perceptual ability and three-dimensional (3D) spatial understanding of the body's interior; however, the course also opens a creative space for participants to process the emotional complexities of cadaver dissection and the anatomy lab experience. The anatomy lab can be the training ground for clinical detachment, but many U.S. medical schools are beginning to attend more closely to the emotional aspects of dissection. The authors maintain that the inherently expressive nature of drawing makes the Art & Anatomy course a novel and effective approach to this endeavor. Select student artwork and a curriculum overview are provided.     

Adolescent Female Aggression: Functions and Etiology

Despite the narrowing gap between male and female use of aggressive behavior, much of the extant aggression research has centered on males. Various internal, or psychological factors, including attachment, emotion regulation, and impulsivity, are typically examined independently from external, or social, factors, such as the quality of the family environment and exposure to community violence. Additionally, the studies rarely distinguish among forms and functions of aggression. The current study was the first to simultaneously examine these factors and their relationships to the distinct functions of aggression in a low-income urban community sample of adolescent females. Participants (N = 214) were recruited from grades 8 through 12 at a diverse all-girls public school in a city in the northeastern United States. Results indicated that greater attachment security and emotion regulation reduced the impact of a more negative family environment upon the use of reactive and proactive aggression. The results also demonstrated that impulsivity and the family environment mediated the relationships between exposure to community violence and the presence of reactive aggression. With higher levels of impulsivity, an increased use of reactive aggression was demonstrated. Lastly, in the context of greater exposure to community violence, a positive family environment decreased the use of reactive aggression. Overall, the results from this study suggested the role of these internal and external factors in the development of aggressive behavior in female adolescents. Further empirical experimental investigation may shed light on the most optimal interventions to prevent the development of aggression.     

Males Prefer Younger Females: Age Preference Among Online Daters in the Dominican Republic

Previous research has found that online daters show a trend in age preference, with males seeking females younger than themselves and females seeking males older than themselves. These studies covered a wide geographic area but not in the Caribbean. To contribute to the literature, we examine online daters’ age preferences in the Dominican Republic. Our statistical analyses show that similar gendered age preferences exist among Dominican online daters even after controlling for their ages. On average, Dominican males prefer younger partners and the reverse is true for females. While there might be cultural differences in different countries affecting the extent and degree of age preferences, the consistent difference by sex underscores the challenges faced by older females in the online dating market.     

Perceptions of Parents' Marriage Predicting Marital Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Attachment Behaviors

This study sought to examine the relationship between perception of parents' marriage, marital satisfaction, and attachment behaviors. Participants included 521 married couples taken from the RELATE project. Gender differences were found between husbands and wives perception of parents' marriage and marital satisfaction. Results also indicated that attachment behaviors were positively and significantly related to increased martial satisfaction for both husbands and wives. Additionally, attachment behaviors moderated the relationship between perception of parents' marriage and marital satisfaction. When perception of parents' marriage was negative but attachment behaviors were high, marital satisfaction increased. These findings underscore the importance attachment behaviors play in married relationships. Clinical implications and future research are discussed.