A modified cognitive interview procedure for frontline police investigators

The current investigative interviewing model for police officers in England and Wales recommends the use of the cognitive interview (CI). However, there is much to suggest that police officers do not regularly fully apply the procedure and that when they do, it is often poorly applied. Research has indicated that this is particularly the case with non‐specialist police investigators who believe the CI is too cumbersome, complex and time consuming for the types of witness interviews they conduct. With this in mind the present study investigated a CI procedure that had been substantially modified in an attempt to enhance its forensic practicability while retaining the demonstrated superiority of the CI. Employing the mock witness paradigm, the modified procedure was compared to both the current CI model and a structured interview (SI). Results revealed that the modified CI was more effective than the SI, while being as effective as the current CI, despite being significantly shorter in duration and, we argue, less demanding for the interviewer. Hence, the proposed modified CI may well be an effective practical alternative for frontline investigators. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distant Memories: A Prospective Study of Vantage Point of Trauma Memories

ABSTRACT— Adopting an observer perspective to recall trauma memories may function as a form of avoidance that maintains posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted a prospective study to analyze the relationship between memory vantage point and PTSD symptoms. Participants ( N = 947) identified the vantage point of their trauma memory and reported PTSD symptoms within 4 weeks of the trauma; 730 participants repeated this process 12 months later. Initially recalling the trauma from an observer vantage point was related to more severe PTSD symptoms at that time and 12 months later. Shifting from a field to an observer perspective a year after trauma was associated with greater PTSD severity at 12 months. These results suggest that remembering trauma from an observer vantage point is related to both immediate and ongoing PTSD symptoms.     

Effects of gaze‐aversion on visual‐spatial imagination

Research suggests that averting gaze from an interlocutor can improve both children's and adults' performance in a range of cognitive tasks. With the present experiments, we investigated the effect of gaze aversion on adults' visual‐spatial imagination, using a methodology adapted from Kerr (1987). Participants mentally kept track of a pathway through an imaginary matrix, while either maintaining eye‐contact with the experimenter, closing their eyes, gazing at a static or a dynamic visual stimulus (in Experiment 1), or fixating an upright or inverted image of the experimenter's face (in Experiment 2). The results show that whereas maintaining eye‐contact with another person disrupts accurate imagination of this pathway, averting gaze or looking at other visual stimuli does not. We conclude that gaze aversion benefits cognitive performance, not just by disengaging visual attention from irrelevant visual information, but also by interrupting social interaction processes involved in face‐to‐face communication.     

The More You See It, the More You Know It: Memory Accessibility and Sexual Harassment Judgments

The influence of the availability of personally known and media known sexual harassment victims and harassers on perceptions of social sexual workplace conduct was examined. Male and female full-time workers evaluated two videotapes that depict sexual harassment in the workplace. Results indicated that perceived likelihood of harassment and discrimination increased as participants recalled more examples of harassment victims whom they personally knew. In some instances, recall of victims in the media had a similar influence. As predicted, the influence of availability was stronger for men than for women. Similar findings resulted from the analyses of the unwelcomeness, severity, and pervasiveness of the conduct; however, legal standard, gender, or case often moderated this relationship. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Musical preference, deviance, and attitudes towards music celebrities

Two studies investigated the relationship among British students between liking for ‘problem’ music, indices of deviance, and scores on a slightly modified version of the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS). Study 1 indicated a positive relationship between liking for ‘problem’ music styles and psychoticism scores. Study 2 indicated that fans of ‘problem’ music scored higher than non-fans on measures of psychoticism, reactive rebelliousness, and two specific problem behaviours; that liking for ‘problem’ music was related only to psychoticism when all the indices of deviance were considered together in a multiple regression; and that fans of ‘problem’ music did not score higher on CAS measures of identification with the participants’ favourite musicians. The present data indicate a relationship outside North America between ‘problem’ music and deviance, that this might be attributable primarily to elevated psychoticism scores among listeners to this music, but that liking for ‘problem’ music was not associated with a greater tendency for participants to identify closely with licentious behaviours carried out by pop musicians.     

Reducing ethnic prejudice: an evaluation of seven recommended principles for incorporation in public campaigns

The present study investigated the effects of seven principles drawn from cognitive models of ethnic prejudice, general information processing models and persuasion models, on levels of ethnic prejudice. It was hypothesized that exposure to cue cards incorporating these principles would result in lower levels of prejudice than cue cards which did not incorporate the principles. A total of 400 caucasian participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions (where participants were exposed to a cue card incorporating or omitting each of the seven principles), or the control condition (with no cue card exposure), and completed a questionnaire measuring ethnic prejudice. Results revealed that the absence of the principles in the cards led in several cases to unwanted negative effects (higher levels of prejudice than the control group). Reasons for these findings and implications for launching poster campaigns to reduce ethnic prejudice are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mainstreaming ‘Women’ without feminisms in psychology

Although it has been argued that feminist work has gained recognition in mainstream psychology (Eagly, Eaton, Rose, Riger, & McHugh, 2012 ), these arguments tend to cite a proliferation of research in high‐ranking Euro‐American academic journals, on topics that concern women or gender in psychology. However, the majority of this work is not presented as explicitly feminist. Rather, it tends to be incorporated into mainstream spaces under the umbrella of the psychology of women. This is often interpreted uncritically to mean the study of womanhood as a stable category or variable, reproducing binary accounts of sex and gender that are largely devoid of feminist analysis. Not only do these interpretations reify essentialist constructions of womanhood; they also convert transformative feminist politics into singular and special interest ‘women's issues’. Indeed, broad feminist theoretical perspectives remain largely absent at the fundamental levels of mainstream psychological knowledge production (Eagly et al., 2012 ; Eagly & Riger, 2014 ). Thus, while credit has been given to the growing visibility of issues concerning women and gender in the discipline, less critical attention has been paid to the broader absence of feminist language in this work. As such, instances of mainstream inclusion have come to take priority over broader issues of feminist exclusions in psychology. Taking a critical position on the discipline from within the context of the Global North, this paper questions the state of mainstream inclusions and reasserts the transformative potentials of diverse feminisms (Liebert, Leve, & Hui, 2011 ), arguing that current inclusions of women without feminisms in psychology are problematic. Drawing on recent mobilisations of the psychology of women in the interests of ‘male psychology’, it is argued that the transformative potentials of feminist psychologies are more likely to be stifled than supported by mainstream inclusions.     

What Works Best for Reducing Symptoms and Improving Quality of Life? A 6-Months Follow-up Study on the Effectiveness of Group Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Group Information and Support for Adults Suffering from Depression

A non-randomized effectiveness trial was conducted in an urban secondary care public mental health service in Ireland. The effectiveness of an 8 session group cognitive behavior therapy program (gCBT-8), where the focus was on behavioral activation and cognitive restructuring, was compared with that of an enhanced 12 session group cognitive behavior therapy program (gCBT-12), which contained additional sessions on schema work, and a 12 session information and support control group program (gIS-12) in which there was no CBT skills training. One hundred and eighty-one adults with unipolar mood disorders were allocated to gCBT-8 (N?=?67), gCBT-12 (N?=?62), or gIS-12 (N?=?52). Before and after treatment, and at 6 months follow-up participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation, the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, and the brief World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale. An intention-to-treat analysis of mean scores showed that the three programs had similar outcomes. There were significant improvements on all dependent variables with post-treatment gains maintained at follow-up. The three programs also led to similar remission and combined reliable improvement and remission rates on the BDI-II. It was concluded that all three programs had similar levels of effectiveness.