Moral judgment and conduct disorder intensity in adolescents involved in delinquency: matching controls by school grade

Most studies that have found associations between delinquency and moral judgment generally compare incarcerated juveniles with adolescents in normal schooling. However, this comparison is subject to two criticisms. First, a large number of adolescents in school who are not charged with any crime in the legal system are still involved in unlawful behaviour. Second, adolescents involved with delinquency often have difficulties at school. The aim of the present study was to measure this association by matching a sample of adolescents involved with delinquency (n=18, M age=15.8, SD=1.1) to adolescents not involved in delinquency (n=42, M age=15.8, SD=0.8) according to their school grade and Conduct Disorder Intensity as measured by a self-report index using DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Participants who met four or more criteria were assigned to the High Conduct Disorder group (n=28), and the rest were assigned to the Low Conduct Disorder group (n=32). Their level of moral judgment was evaluated with the French version of the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form by Gibbs, Basinger, and Fuller, inspired by Kohlberg's model of moral development. Findings demonstrate that in both samples, adolescents in the High Conduct Disorder group presented moral judgment that was significantly less mature than that of adolescents in the Low Conduct Disorder group. However, the majority of participants in the Low Conduct Disorder group also scored low on the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form, suggesting more immature moral judgment. The bias introduced by the mode of recruitment in most comparisons of adolescents involved with delinquency to adolescents with no delinquency problems is discussed, and an argument is made for the importance of analysing moral judgment development within a framework of general cognitive development.     

Relative Effectiveness of Values Clarification and Symbolic Modeling in Enhancing the Moral Values of Adolescents in Selected Nigerian Schools

Using quasi-experiment, this study explored the effects of values clarification and symbolic modeling on moral intent to act in a sample of 120 high school students from Ogun State, Nigeria. Despite widespread disapproval and outright condemnation by the public, moral offences by the adolescent population have become increasingly frequent and grave in both the urban and rural areas of Nigeria. Believing that programs set by the government could impact the level of moral behavior among the youths of Nigeria, various leaders in Nigeria have attempted to make a difference in the moral life of the nation, such as “Ethical Revolution” by President Shehu Shagari in 1982; “War Against Indiscipline” by General Mohammed Buhari in 1985. In this study, both values clarification and symbolic modeling options demonstrated significant impacts on moral behavior as measured by the Moral Behavioral Inventory (MBI) and the Adolescent Personal Development Inventory (APDI).     

Double foot‐in‐the‐door,social representations,and environment: application for energy savings

This study aims to determine the most effective procedure to bring individuals to adopt pro‐environmental behaviors, specifically to make energy savings for several weeks. A link was established between two fields of research traditionally separated in social psychology literature: free will compliance and social representations theories. An experiment was carried out to test the effectiveness of several simple and double foot‐in‐the‐door procedures, activating central or peripheral cognitions of the social representation of energy savings. Basically, the results indicate that the most effective procedure is the double foot‐in‐the‐door, which activates central cognitions. Twice as many participants accepted the target request and three times as many actually performed the expected behavior with this procedure.     

Therapeutic Assessment of a Violent Criminal Offender: Managing the Cultural Narrative of Evil

Therapeutic Assessment (TA) emphasizes the importance of the clinical relationship and the core values of collaboration, respect, humility, compassion, and curiosity, which guide all aspects of the endeavor (Finn, 2007 Finn, S. E. (2007). In our clients' shoes: Theory and techniques of Therapeutic Assessment. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. [Google Scholar]). Those values are not easy to apply with violent offenders. However, this article explains how TA can significantly contribute to the treatment of those clients by helping the therapist avoid common cultural narratives about evil. We see that these culturally based myths permit us to explain violent behaviors, but also prevent us from treating them because they lead us to a circular countertransference–transference process. Through a clinical case, I show how the TA process can help us to work empathically with violent people while addressing the dangerousness effectively.     

Emotional enhancement of immediate memory: Positive pictorial stimuli are better recognized than neutral or negative pictorial stimuli

We examined emotional memory enhancement (EEM) for negative and positive pictures while manipulating encoding and retrieval conditions. Two groups of 40 participants took part in this study. Both groups performed immediate implicit (categorization task) and explicit (recognition task) retrieval, but for one group the tasks were preceded by incidental encoding and for the other group by intentional encoding. As indicated by the sensitivity index (d'), after incidental encoding positive stimuli were easier to recognize than negative and neutral stimuli. Participants' response criterion was more liberal for negative stimuli than for both positive and neutral ones, independent of encoding condition. In the implicit retrieval task, participants were slower in categorizing positive than negative and neutral stimuli. However, the priming effect was larger for emotional than for neutral stimuli. These results are discussed in the context of the idea that the effect of emotion on immediate memory enhancement may depend on the intentionality to encode and retrieve information.     

Contribution of somesthetic information to the perception of body orientation in the pitch dimension

This study investigated the contribution of otolithic and somesthetic inputs in the perception of body orientation when pitching at very slow velocities. In Experiment 1, the subjects' task was to indicate their subjective postural vertical, in two different conditions of body restriction, starting from different angles of body tilt. In the "strapped" condition, subjects were attached onto a platform by means of large straps. In the "body cast" condition, subjects were completely immobilized in a depressurized system, which attenuates gravity-based somesthetic cues. Results showed that the condition of body restriction and the initial tilt largely influenced the subjective postural vertical. In Experiment 2, subjects were displaced from a vertical position and had to detect the direction of body tilts. Results showed that the threshold for the perception of body tilt was higher when subjects were immobilized in the body cast and when they were tilted backward. Experiment 3 replicated the same protocol from a supine starting position. Compared to results of Experiment 2, the threshold for the perception of body tilt decreased significantly. Overall, these data suggested that gravity-based somesthetic cues are more informative than otolithic cues for the perception of a quasi-static body orientation.