Inmates' perceptions of determinate and indeterminate sentences

The movement to replace indeterminate with determinate sentencing is among the most important recent developments in the criminal justice field. While the views of citizens and scholars on the subject have been widely promulgated, little is known about those of the ultimate “consumers” of sentencing reform, namely, inmates. This article examines the views of a systematic sample of inmates in a maximum security institution in Massachusetts. Subjects' opinions were sought on the relative merits of the two typs of sentencing, and possible behavioral and deterrent effects of a proposed switch to determinate sentencing. More inmates were found to be either opposed to or undecided about than in favor of determinate sentencing.     

Sex roles and soap operas: What adolescents learn about single motherhood

This study investigated the contribution of daytime television soap operas to the perception of the roles and lifestyle of the single mother. The perceptions of soap opera viewers and nonviewers were compared using 163 junior and senior high students as subjects, 9% of whom were ethnic minorities. In particular, viewers perceive that single mothers have good jobs, are relatively well-educated and do not live in poverty. Further, they perceive that their babies will be as healthy as most babies and that their babies will get love and attention from adult men who are friends of their mothers. To the degree that these perceptions contribute to the gender role socialization of adolescents, we are faced with a problematic situation. Particularly in light of the fact that soap operas are increasingly targeting the adolescent viewer, the image portrayed on soap operas and the impact it appears to have is of great concern.     

Mental rotation of static and dynamic figures

Previous studies comparing performance on standard (i.e., static) and dynamic spatial test items have concluded that the two item types measure different abilities. Such conclusions about the uniqueness of static and dynamic spatial abilities seem premature, however, since only a limited number of dynamic spatial tasks have been utilized in research and these have differed markedly from their static counterparts. In the present studies, tasks were designed to require a common mental operation (mental rotation) under static and dynamic conditions. Correlations between static and dynamic performance ranged from .80 to .90. This appears to suggest that the emergence of a unique dynamic ability factor depends on the utilization of certain specialized tasks (e.g., arrival time tasks) with mental operations much different than those required by conventional spatial tests. In other words, it is apparently the requirement for different cognitive processes and not the processing of stimulus motion per se that distinguishes performance onsome dynamic tasks from performance on some standard static tasks.     

Trust and Missed Opportunities in International Relations

With the end of the Cold War, we must wonder whether there were missed opportunities to regulate the arms race and global competition, which nearly bankrupted the United States and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. A missed opportunity for agreement is a situation where there was at least one alternative that the parties to a conflict preferred or would have preferred to nonagreement. Hard-core Realists argue that states compete for territory, arms, and influence because they have conflicting national interests. Soft-core Realists maintain that such conflicts are effects of international anarchy and uncertainty, and that states can cooperate contingent on reciprocity. I argue that states often fail to cooperate even when they have compatible preferences because policy-makers make incorrect inferences about the opponent's motives and intentions, a process that can be illuminated by social psychology. I present three alternative explanations of trust and distrust in international relations—rational choice, domestic structures, and social psychology. If policy-makers are prudent, they will assess the other's interests in observing an agreement as well as its reputation. Often, domestic political structures encourage leaders to promote distrust of an external enemy to legitimize their internal rule or foreign policy. Finally, distrust may lead policy-makers to dismiss the other side's cooperative signals or proposals. Distrust can be overcome by making a series of step-by-step agreements in which each side can test the other's good faith at limited cost, or through unilateral concessions as part of a consistent policy.     

Effects of self-reinforcement on the demanding behaviors of a paranoid personality: A case report

Describes the extinction of the demanding behaviors of a nine-year-old boy by placing the responsibility for behavioral reinforcement directly under his own control. The therapist assumed that the behavioral pattern of the paranoid personality is characterized by an overdependence upon environmental reinforcers and therefore used the self-management technique, allowing the student the opportunity to gain independence from his classroom environment while meeting his need for positive feedback.     

On the independence of positive and negative affect within hour-to-hour experience

This research investigates the hypothesis that the rates of positive and negative affect in a person's life are independent. Whereas prior research on this issue has relied upon people's recollections, a source of information subject to distortion, this research employs reports obtained from immediate experience. Members of an adolescent and an adult sample carried electronic pagers for 1 week and filled out reports on their immediate affective states upon receipt of signals sent to them at random times. The frequencies of positive and negative affective states for each person were then computed from this pool of time samples. The findings reveal strong internal consistency in each person's rates of positive and negative affect. However, congruent with the independence hypothesis, these frequency rates of positive and negative affect were not correlated with each other. The findings dispel the possibility that the results of prior research were affected by distortions of recollection, and they suggest that the occurrence of positive and negative affect in a person's life are independent, not only from week to week, but also from day to day and hour to hour.This research was carried out with support from the Psychiatric Research Fund of Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center. The author wishes to express his appreciation to Norman Bradburn, Mark Freeman, Nancy Bradney, Randy Larsen, and Ed Diener for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The author is indebted to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Ronald Graef for use of the data from the adult sample.     

The impact of religion on men's blood pressure

Most clinical studies examining the relation between religion and blood pressure status have focused on church attendance, finding lower pressures among frequent attenders. The present study examines the effect on blood pressure status of a religious meaning variable, importance of religion, both by itself and together with frequency of church attendance. The relation between blood pressure, self-perceived importance of religion, and frequency of church attendance was examined among a rural sample of 407 white men free from hypertension or cardiovascular disease. The data confirmed an interaction between the effects of both religious variables on blood pressure status, with importance of religion having an even greater association with lower pressures than church attendance. Diastolic blood pressures of persons with high church attendance and high religious importance were significantly lower than those in the low attendance, low importance group. These differences persisted after adjusting the analyses for age, socioeconomic status, smoking, and weight-height ratio (Quetelet Index). The difference in mean diastolic pressures based on response to the religious importance variable alone was statistically and clinically significant, particularly among men aged 55 and over (6 mm) and among smokers (5 mm). These findings suggest that both religious attitudes and involvement may interact favorably in their effects on cardiovascular hemodynamics.     

Reduction of police vehicle accidents through mechaniically aided supervision

Tachograph recorders were installed in 224 vehicles of a metropolitan police department to monitor vehicle operation in an attempt to reduce the rate of accidents. Police sergeants reviewed each tachograph chart and provided feedback to officers regarding their driving performance. Reliability checks and additional feedback procedures were implemented so that upper level supervisors monitored and controlled the performance of field sergeants. The tachograph intervention and components of the feedback system nearly eliminated personal injury accidents and sharply reduced accidents caused by officer negligence. A cost-benefit analysis revealed that the savings in vehicle repair and injury claims outweighed the equipment and operating costs.     

Diagnostic accuracy of the Millon test computer reports for bipolar affective disorder

The diagnostic accuracy of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) computer reports was assessed for the sample of 48 patients reliably identified as having bipolar affective disorder. Only 13 of the 48 reports were accurate in classifying the patients as having bipolar affective disorder, and this was significantly (p < .01) less than 50% of the cases. The diagnostic accuracy clearly left much to be desired. Additional research is needed to assess the validity of MCMI diagnostic suggestions for other patient groups.