The Backbone of Closing Speeches: The Impact of Prosecution Versus Defense Language on Judicial Attributions1

Subtle attribution cues embedded in language were investigated in a simulated courtroom setting. Lawyers in training as well as lay attorneys gave closing speeches for the defense and for the prosecution. In a first study, distinct linguistic strategies were identified. Prosecutors attributed internal causality to defendants, whereas defense attorneys supported negative intentional attributions to the victim. In a second study, lay persons judged the closing speeches and decided on verdict and punishment. Severity of punishment depended on speaker's role (defense or prosecution), severity of crime, and 2 linguistic strategies, indicating intentionality of negative behavior and dispositionality of negative behavior. It is concluded that subtle language strategies do have a noticeable effect on the attribution of blame and guilt in a legal setting.     

Cue utilization in emotion attribution from auditory stimuli

Electronically synthesized tone sequences with systematic manipulation of amplitude and pitch variation, pitch level and contour, tempo, envelope, and filtration were rated on emotional expressiveness. The results show that two-thirds to three-quarters of the variance in the emotion attributions can be explained by the manipulation of the acoustic cues, and that a linear model of the judges' cue utilization seems to be a good approximation to their response system. Implications for phylogenetic and ontogenetic aspects of the vocal expression of emotion and for the psychology of music are discussed.This paper is based on research supported by NIMH grant MH 19-569-01 to the first author while at the University of Pennsylvania. The authors gratefully acknowledge comments and suggestions by Paul Ekman, Ursula Scherer, and two anonymous reviewers.     

Testing the Spillover-Crossover Model between Work-Life Balance and Satisfaction in Different Domains of Life in Dual-Earner Households

This study explored the spillover and crossover associations between work-life balance and satisfaction with life, food-related life and family life in dual-earner parents. Questionnaires were administered to 303 dual-earner couples with adolescent children in Temuco, Chile. Both members of the couples answered the Work-life Balance (WLB) scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Satisfaction with Food-related Life scale (SWFoL) and the Satisfaction with Family Life scale (SWFaL). Using the actor-partner independence model and structural equation modeling and having controlled for the effects of age, number of children, number of family members and family socioeconomic status, we found that the man’s work-life balance was positively associated with his own levels of satisfaction with life, family life and food related life, as well as with his partner’s (the woman’s) levels of satisfaction with life, food related life and family life. Likewise, the woman’s work-life balance was positively associated with her own levels of satisfaction with life, family life and food related life, as well as with her partner’s (the man’s) levels of satisfaction with food related life and family life, but not with his level of life satisfaction. These findings suggest the need to improve work-life balance for employees of both genders in order to enhance their overall life satisfaction, as well as their satisfaction in the family and food domains.

     

Do Self-efficacy Expectation and Spirituality Provide a Buffer Against Stress-Associated Impairment of Health? A Comprehensive Analysis of the German Pastoral Ministry Study

We aimed to analyse stress perception, psychosomatic health and life satisfaction in pastoral professionals, paying particular attention to their individual and shared resources. Enrolling 8574 German pastoral professionals (48 % priests, 22 % parish expert workers, 18 % pastoral assistants, 12 % deacons), we found that pastoral professionals’ stress perception is associated with psychosomatic health impairment. General self-efficacy was a beneficial resource to protect against stress perceptions, while perception of the transcendent had a further yet weakly positive influence for stress-related impairment of health. External stressors (i.e. team size, duration of work per week and size of pastoral unit) were only of marginal independent relevance.     

Motor training at 3 months affects object exploration 12 months later

The development of new motor skills alters how infants interact with objects and people. Consequently, it has been suggested that motor skills may initiate a cascade of events influencing subsequent development. However, only correlational evidence for this assumption has been obtained thus far. The current study addressed this question experimentally by systematically varying reaching experiences in 40 three‐month‐old infants who were not reaching on their own yet and examining their object engagement in a longitudinal follow‐up assessment 12 months later. Results revealed increased object exploration and attention focusing skills in 15‐month‐old infants who experienced active reaching at 3 months of age compared to untrained infants or infants who only passively experienced reaching. Further, grasping activity after – but not before – reaching training predicted infants’ object exploration 12 months later. These findings provide evidence for the long‐term effects of reaching experiences and illustrate the cascading effects initiated by early motor skills.     

A turn-key transportable eye-tracking instrument for clinical assessment

This paper describes a combined instrument (eye tracker and target generator, both head mounted, with integrated data analysis) that tests parameters of saccadic eye movement and fixation control to give insight into the status of functional brain systems. Using three minilasers, the target generator projects three visual stimuli, a fixation point and two lateral stimuli, with programmable timing. The controller allows the selection of overlap, 200-msec gap, or remembered saccade trials. Size, maximal velocity, and reaction time are determined for each primary saccade. The number of prosaccades and antisaccades are counted. More saccades—for example, the occurrence and latency of corrective saccades—may be evaluated off line by an interactive PC analysis program. The eye position data can be transferred to a PC. Off-line analysis compares each observed variable relative to an age-matched control group (300 healthy control subjects 7–70 years of age, tested in the overlap condition with prosaccade instructions and in the gap condition with antisaccades). The diagnostic results can be used to elaborate an individual optomotor training program.     

Empathy, guilt, and gender: a comparison of two measures of guilt

The relations of empathy with two measures of guilt were examined in a sample of 13- to 16-year-olds (N= 113). Empathy was measured using Davis's IRI and guilt by Tangney's TOSCA and Hoffman's semi-projective story completion method that includes two different scenarios, guilt over cheating and guilt over inaction. Empathy correlated more strongly with both measures of guilt than the two measures correlated with each other. For boys, cognitive perspective-taking was a stronger predictor for guilt than for girls. Hoffman's guilt over inaction was more strongly associated with empathy measures in girls than in boys, whereas for guilt over cheating the pattern was the opposite. The results indicate that boys and girls may emphasize different aspects of morality.