The Internet is a scary place: How does evidence source and examinee race or ethnicity influence determinations of threat?

Violent rhetoric online is becoming increasingly relevant to the practice of forensic mental health assessment as examinee's virtual lives may transform into real-world acts of violence. With the rise of a diverse subculture of violent online communities, the aim of the present study was to inform how concerns with online sources of collateral data and racial/ethnic biases may influence determinations of violence potential. Using an experimental design, jury-eligible participants (N = 278) and forensic mental health experts (N = 78) were presented with mock Twitter (now referred to as X) posts that varied by data source (i.e., how information was accessed) and the examinee's race/ethnicity. Results showed no differences in participants' ratings of data credibility, how much weight they would place on the posts in a threat assessment, or how likely the examinee was to act violently against his intended target. Implications regarding the interpretation of social media evidence, relevant limitations, and future research are discussed.     

A test of constancy scaling theory in a modified Mueller-Lyer illusion

The center line of each of the two Mueller-Lyer figures was replaced by a rectangle whose length and width were both judged. The rectangle, bounded by wings positioned outward, was judged both longer and narrower than a standard rectangle of equal size, while the rectangle bounded by wings oriented inward was judged to be both shorter and wider than the standard rectangle. These results were considered to provide evidence against a constancy scaling explanation of geometric illusions. Other theories to account for the results were considered and found inadequate.     

Changes in stuttering in relation to children's locus of control

The locus of control of stuttering children before, during, and after treatment for dysfluency was investigated. Subjects participated in a one-week program combining delayed auditory feedback and training of parents to negotiate and implement contracts for their child's practice of stutter-free speech skills. The Children's Nowicki-Strickland Scale was used to measure locus of control before, immediately after, two months after, and six months after the training. Measures of speech dysfluency were available at each of these times and documented the effectiveness of treatment in reducing stuttering. The locus of control scores for stuttering children prior to treatment were comparable to normative groups. Internality on the locus of control measure prior to treatment was directly related to degree of change in dysfluency immediately following the one-week clinic, but not to dysfluency levels at the 2-month or 6-month follow-up sessions. Concomitant with improved speech, the children became progressively more internal following treatment. The results suggest that participation in a behavioral program for the treatment of stuttering increases internality.     

Minority stress and intimate partner aggression among male same-sex couples

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is high among gay, bisexual, queer, and other sexual minority men (SMM), and is strongly linked to minority stress. These links might be further magnified or buffered by communication between partners (i.e., negative and positive communication, respectively). The present study investigated associations of minority stress and IPA, and the moderating role of positive/negative communication, among male couples (N = 932 individuals, 466 couples). Partners completed measures of communication skills, minority stress, and IPA, which were analyzed using moderated actor-partner interdependence models. Results suggested that microaggressions increase one's own (i.e., an actor effect) and one's partner's (i.e., a partner effect) verbal IPA victimization, verbal IPA perpetration, and physical IPA victimization. Positive communication moderated the association between microaggressions and verbal IPA victimization, suggesting that high levels of positive communication may buffer the microaggression-verbal IPA link. Thus, minority stress' detrimental impacts on relationship functioning among male same-sex couples may be reduced by the presence of positive communication (e.g., effective conflict resolution). We discuss structural and clinical innovations to prevent IPA among male couples, with particular emphasis on the absence of positive communication as an aggravating factor.     

Age-related differences in the brain areas outside the classical language areas among adults using category decision task

Older adults perform much like younger adults on language. This similar level of performance, however, may come about through different underlying brain processes. In the present study, we evaluated age-related differences in the brain areas outside the typical language areas among adults using a category decision task. Our results showed that similar activation patterns were found in classical language processing areas across the three age groups although regional lateralization indices in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas decreased with age. The greatest differences, however, among the three groups were found primarily in the brain areas not associated with core language functioning including the hippocampus, middle frontal gyrus, ventromedial frontal cortex, medial superior parietal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. Therefore, the non-classical language areas may exhibit an age-related difference between three age groups while the subjects show a similar activation pattern in the core, primary language processing during a semantic decision task.     

National-level Indicators of Androgens are Related to the Global Distribution of Scientific Productivity and Science Nobel Prizes

There are national differences in scientific activity that are not well accounted for by economic and intellectual factors alone. We examine the novel hypothesis that androgen levels may also play a role. Androgens are often referred to as male hormones, but are present in both men and women, and have been linked to performance in other domains, such as sports and entrepreneurship. National-level empirical data on scientific productivity, in terms of numbers of publications, and science Nobel laureates were compared to seven national-level androgen indicators; namely androgenic body hair, the length of the CAG repeat on the androgen receptor gene, prostate cancer incidence, male and female 2D:4D finger ratio, and sex frequency and number of partners. The majority of these indicators were associated in the expected direction with per capita number of scientific publications and Nobel prizes. Moreover, several indicators significantly interacted with national-level estimates of intelligence, such that androgen levels are related to measures of the scientific achievement only when the level of intelligence is relatively high. These findings may partly explain the global distribution of scientific productivity, achievements, and Nobel prizes.     

Transdiagnostic Associations Among Parental Causal Locus Attributions,Child Behavior and Psychosocial Treatment Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review - Parents’ interpretations of the cause of their children’s behavior, i.e., parental attributions, are linked to parenting behavior and child...     

Blending,Bargaining, and Burden-Sharing: Canada’s Resettlement Programs

In this piece, we offer a comment on the most recent addition to the Canadian resettlement scheme, the Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) program. The BVOR program was introduced in 2013 as a modified version of private sponsorship and middle ground between sponsorship and government-assisted resettlement. While the program was met with criticism and skepticism that the government was off-loading more resettlement responsibility to private sponsors, the Syrian crisis significantly impacted and changed the Canadian resettlement landscape. This comment outlines the program and surveys the benefits and concerns with such a model. BVOR is examined in relation to both private and government resettlement, in the current moment of Syrian resettlement, and in comparison to the historical use of private sponsorship for Indochinese refugees. Through an examination of the challenges BVOR is intended to address and the division of public and private responsibility, the comment serves to assess the direction of Canada’s future resettlement.