Punishing Those Responsible for the Prison Abuses at Abu Ghraib: The Influence of the Negative Reciprocity Norm (NRN)

The negative reciprocity norm (NRN) is the personal moral code specifying retaliation as a proper response to wrongdoing ( Eisenberger, Lynch, Aselage, & Rohdieck, 2004 ). We examined the role of negative reciprocity in interpreting and reacting to the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib. Results showed that people who believed that American soldiers behaved wrongly at Abu Ghraib were more likely to view punishing the soldiers responsible as a highly moral response and were less likely to contribute money to a charitable organization that helps American soldiers. These relationships were only present among those highly endorsing the negative reciprocity norm.     

Do parents and children know each other? A study about agreement on personality within families

The relationships between self-report and observer-rating versions of personality questionnaires within families in the Spanish cultural context were studied. In the first sample, 336 couples rated the personality of one of their children. The children also assessed their own personality. Goldberg's adjectives were administered. In the second sample, 120 university students rated the personality of their parents. Both parents also assessed their own personality. In this case, Goldberg's adjectives and the NEO-PI-R were administered. Results replicate the level of agreement found in other cultural contexts. Correlations were around .40, and the effect size of the mean differences was not large. Children were more accurate than parents, larger agreement coefficients were found for the NEO-PI-R than for Goldberg's adjectives in Sample 2, especially for the Openness factor, and no substantial role for the sex variable was found in either sample. Implications and limitations of the present study are discussed.     

Cross-linguistic assessment of verbal production from a narrative task in Williams Syndrome

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a disorder caused by a delection in chromosome 7, with a cognitive profile characterised by mild to moderate mental deficiency and difficulties in visual-spatial processing, which contrasts with a relative preservation of linguistic functions and narrative production. In this study, verbal performance was analysed in two groups of participants (N = 3), Portuguese and Spanish, genetically diagnosed with WS. Scores were low in Verbal IQ, as in Performance IQ. Narrative performance showed low coherence with respect to structure, process, and content. WS verbal performance was affected and there was no difference between both groups. We could not find any dissociation between cognitive functioning and linguistic production.     

Priming of semantic classifications by novel subliminal prime words

Four experiments demonstrate category congruency priming by subliminal prime words that were never seen as targets in a valence-classification task (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) and a gender-classification task (Experiment 3). In Experiment 1, overlap in terms of word fragments of one or more letters between primes and targets of different valences was larger than between primes and targets of the same valence. In Experiments 2 and 3, the sets of prime words and target words were completely disjoint in terms of used letters. In Experiment 4, pictures served as targets. The observed subliminal priming effects for novel primes cannot be driven by partial analysis of primes at the word-fragment level; they suggest instead that primes were processed semantically as whole words contingent upon prime duration.     

People accounting: Social category-based choice

This paper presents people accounting—a hypothesis that describes how a simple numerical imbalance in representation along nominal social category lines can affect people’s choice of candidates in highly competitive situations (e.g., awards, jobs, etc.). For example, two scholarship finalists from California and New York may be equally qualified, but the award-winning chance for the California candidate will drop precipitously if 8 of the past 10 winners were from California. Studies 1-3 illustrate this effect. Study 4 links people accounting to intergroup fairness concerns and suggests that people accounting is more likely to occur when the category dimension is meaningful (e.g., Stanford/Princeton) than when it is not (e.g., left/right-handedness). Study 5 shows that candidates from overrepresented categories (e.g., “Californians”) must achieve higher minimum standards in order to be selected. The implication is that highly competitive decisions are often influenced by headcounts along mundane social category lines.     

Community vs. Clinic-Based Modular Treatment of Children with Early-Onset ODD or CD: A Clinical Trial with 3-Year Follow-Up

This study examines the treatment outcomes of 139, 6–11 year-old, clinically referred boys and girls diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) or Conduct Disorder (CD) who were randomly assigned to a modular-based treatment protocol that was applied by research study clinicians either in the community (COMM) or a clinic office (CLINIC). To examine normative comparisons, a matched sample of 69 healthy control children was included. Multiple informants completed diagnostic interviews and self-reports at six assessment timepoints (pretreatment to 3-year follow-up) to evaluate changes in the child’s behavioral and emotional problems, psychopathic features, functional impairment, diagnostic status, and service involvement. Using HLM and logistic regression models, COMM and CLINIC showed significant and comparable improvements on all outcomes. By 3-year follow-up, 36% of COMM and 47% of CLINIC patients no longer met criteria for either ODD or CD, and 48% and 57% of the children in these two respective conditions had levels of parent-rated externalizing behavior problems in the normal range. We discuss the nature and implications of these novel findings regarding the role of treatment context or setting for the treatment and long-term outcome of behavior disorders. This study was supported by grants to the first author from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 57727) and to the second author by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NR 07615). The fourth author was supported by grant K01 MH078039 from the National Institute of Mental Health. The authors acknowledge the research and clinical staff of the Resources to Enhance the Adjustment of Children (REACH) program, and Drs. David Brent, Tammy Chung, William Gardner, John Lochman, and Wayne Osgood. Reprints may be obtained from Dr. Kolko, WPIC, 3811 O’Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213.     

Perceptions of Registered Nurses/Midwives and Obstetricians on Having Males as Expectant Fathers Present in the Delivery Room at Public Hospitals in Trinidad and Tobago: Implications for Women and Their Partners

This study explored the perspectives of obstetricians and registered nurses/midwives on the presence of expectant fathers in the delivery room with a view to understanding the implications for the mother as well as the expectant father. A qualitative research design using a phenomenological approach to understand the nuances and challenges that affect the perceptions and attitudes of obstetricians and registered nurses/midwives on the research issue. Five focus group discussions and five key informant interviews were the data collection strategies. Data were coded openly then combined to form themes which were utilized as the framework for data analysis. Three major themes emerged in the findings which included potential benefits to the mother, potential benefits to the father and potential benefits to the relationship. Generally, obstetricians and registered nurses/midwives held positive views about their presence in the delivery suite. This was related to the perceived positive impact that he could have on the woman during the inter-natal and post-natal periods as well as the quality of the relationship. By extension, their presence could have positive long term benefits on the quality of the relationship. The presence of expectant fathers in the delivery room could have a positive impact on the delivery experience for mothers, fathers and the long term relationship. The findings could provide a framework for other studies including a prospective study on the long term implications for the presence of expectant fathers in the delivery room.     

The dramatic essence of the narrative approach

Even though it is not a methodology on the level of principlism or casuistry, narrative bioethics nonetheless contributes to and guides decision-making in the field of biomedical ethics. However, unlike other methodologies, the narrative approach lacks a set of specific patterns and formal rules for doing so. This deficiency leaves this approach more vulnerable to the influence of historical factors; in fact, the vital history of a person is made up of thousands of scenes, which one must select and group under different norms. Yet the historicity of narrative does not destroy its normative value; rather, it gives rise to a confluence of stories that contradict one another on the basis of their practical consequences. This problem is less severe in traditional cultures, where some stories take precedence over others according to the normative value conferred through the supposed authority of their sources. But it manifests in an intense manner within current multicultural societies. It is imperative to find the thread that leads outside the labyrinth of subjectivity. This paper shows that the end of this thread lies, paradoxically, not in actions but in the subject-actors that perform them—specifically when such subjects are conceived as dramaturgical characters in narrative.