Children's Risky Play from an Evolutionary Perspective: The Anti-Phobic Effects of Thrilling Experiences

This theoretical article views children's risky play from an evolutionary perspective, addressing specific evolutionary functions and especially the anti-phobic effects of risky play. According to the non-associative theory, a contemporary approach to the etiology of anxiety, children develop fears of certain stimuli (e.g., heights and strangers) that protect them from situations they are not mature enough to cope with, naturally through infancy. Risky play is a set of motivated behaviors that both provide the child with an exhilarating positive emotion and expose the child to the stimuli they previously have feared. As the child's coping skills improve, these situations and stimuli may be mastered and no longer be feared. Thus fear caused by maturational and age relevant natural inhibition is reduced as the child experiences a motivating thrilling activation, while learning to master age adequate challenges. It is concluded that risky play may have evolved due to this anti-phobic effect in normal child development, and it is suggested that we may observe an increased neuroticism or psychopathology in society if children are hindered from partaking in age adequate risky play.     

Inside Criminal Minds: Offenders' Strategies when Lying

This study aimed at extending the deception literature by examining lie‐telling strategies given by persons with criminal experience. In interviews taking place in prisons, offenders (n = 35) provided lie‐telling strategies in a free narrative style. In an inductive content analysis, we coded both all strategies provided as well as one principal strategy for each participant. In total, 13 strategies were identified, which were grouped into three broader category groups: general verbal, general nonverbal, and specific interview strategies. The most often stated strategies were Close to truth, Eye contact, and No strategy. The most often stated principal strategies were Close to truth, Not giving away information, and No strategy. Some participants provided strategies, such as not giving away information at all in interviews/interrogations, which showed a sophisticated understanding of the police interview situation and the task of the police and prosecutor. Overall, the participants showed great diversity in preferred lie‐telling strategy. The results are partly in line with previous research from student samples and provide new insights into the criminally experienced individuals' lie‐telling strategies. The results are discussed with regard to impression and information management and police interrogation practice. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An exploratory study to assess the impact of work demands and the anticipation of work on awakening saliva cortisol

The goal was to investigate whether cortisol on awakening is higher on Monday relative to Sunday morning, and to assess whether responses vary with job demands and the anticipation of work. 77 white collar workers gave a sample of saliva on awakening Sunday and Monday mornings, and then rated their anticipation for work. Data showed that salivary cortisol concentration was greater on Monday compared to Sunday morning. There were no main effects of job demands or anticipation of work on cortisol secretion. There was a significant interaction between job demands and anticipation of work on Monday, relative to Sunday morning. Cortisol secretion was higher in those reporting high job demands together with a greater anticipation of work. It was concluded that increased awakening saliva cortisol secretion is not necessarily a result of working in a highly demanding environment. Anticipating the impending working day appears to be an important influence on adrenal-cortical activity.     

The relationship between attachment, personality and antisocial tendencies in a prison sample: a pilot study

This study examined the role of adult attachment and personality in relation to antisocial tendencies (i.e. convictions for violence and interpersonal problems in romantic relationships) in Norwegian prison inmates (N=92). Attachment styles and personality were measured using self-report questionnaires (RSQ; Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994; and NEO-FFI, Costa & McCrae, 1992a). The prison inmates scored higher on avoidant than on anxious attachment style. While age and agreeableness (negatively associated) emerged as significant predictors of violence, anxious attachment explained most of the variances in aggression in intimate relationships. The study suggests that different types of antisocial tendencies could have different attachment and general personality correlates.     

Inducing and reducing false memories: a Swedish version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm

Participants tend to falsely remember a nonpresented critical word after having studied a list of the word's primary associates. We present here a Swedish version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm, which provides a tractable method of experimentally inducing and investigating such illusory memories. In Experiment 1 it was demonstrated that the constructed stimulus material induced highly reliable false-recall and false-recognition effects, and, moreover, that veridical and false memories were associated with a similar phenomenological experience of remembering. The results from Experiment 2 indicated that the susceptibility to false recognition can be substantially reduced when participants are explicitly required to monitor the sources of their memories. These findings are consistent with predictions derived from the source-monitoring framework.     

Different corticostriatal patterns of L-DOPA utilization in patients with untreated schizophrenia and patients treated with classical antipsychotics or clozapine

Positron emission tomography (PET) has been shown to be of great importance in elucidating the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs. In psychotic patients L-[11C]DOPA PET has been used to demonstrate some differences in dopaminergic activity compared with that in healthy volunteers. Ten healthy volunteers were investigated with PET and L-[11C]DOPA. Ten drug-free patients with psychosis, nine stable schizophrenics treated with clozapine, and nine stable patients treated with classical antipsychotics were also investigated with L-[11C]DOPA. Principal-component analysis was employed for the analysis of L-[11C]DOPA Ki values across a number of corticostriatal brain regions. These data revealed a significant three-component model with clear-cut separation between healthy controls and patients with unmedicated schizophrenia. Stable optimal treatment with either classical neuroleptics or clozapine partially, albeit differentially, reversed the aberrant patterns seen in drug-free schizophrenia. It can thus be concluded that schizophrenia is associated with abnormal patterns of L-[11C]DOPA utilization in corticostriatal systems. Treatment with clozapine or classical neuroleptics induces partial, albeit differential, normalization of the abnormal patterns seen in untreated schizophrenia.     

The usual and the unusual suspects: level of suspicion and counter-interrogation tactics

The present study investigated guilty mock-suspects' counter-interrogation tactics with respect to the disclosure of possibly self-incriminating information, specifically, to what extent the disclosure of this information was moderated by (1) the suspects' criminal experience (naïve versus experienced) and (2) the degree of suspicion directed towards the suspects (low versus high). We found that experienced (versus naïve) suspects volunteered less self-incriminating information in an initial free recall phase. In a similar vein, when asked crime-specific questions, naïve (versus experienced) suspects admitted having committed more actions fitting with the crime under investigation. Furthermore, experienced suspects' willingness to report information was not affected by the degree of suspicion, whereas naïve suspects in a high-suspicion (versus low-suspicion) condition were more willing to report information. The results were discussed in the light of the psychology of guilt, the Strategic Use of Evidence technique for detecting deception, and the (over)use of naïve suspects as mock-suspects in psycho-legal research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correlates of condom use and condom‐use motivation among young South Africans

A survey of South African secondary school students aged 12–17 years (n = 893) included measures designed to investigate relationships between beliefs about HIV/AIDS, condom use, interpersonal relationships, and two dependent measures: motivation to use condoms and reported condom use. We predicted that motivation would be an important correlate of reported condom use and that traditional cultural beliefs included in social cognition models would predict condom use motivation. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that 10% of the variance in reported condom use was accounted for by condom use motivation and age. Condom self‐efficacy, beliefs about condoms and injunctive norms accounted for much of the variance. Other beliefs included susceptibility to HIV and attribution of HIV to asexual sources such as witchcraft indicating that an expanded model of modifiable cognitions may be optimal when designing HIV interventions among young South Africans.