Validating a distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy with measures of Gray's BIS and BAS constructs

Investigators commonly distinguish between primary and secondary psychopathy (H. Cleckley, 1976; D.T. Lykken, 1995), though there is a lack of consensus regarding the best means to achieve this distinction. To address the validity of using R. D. Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist and the G. Welsh (1956) Anxiety Scale for this purpose, the authors used 2 measures of J. A. Gray's (1987) behavioral inhibition system/behavioral activation system (BIS/BAS). Following D. T. Lykken (1995) and D. C. Fowles (1980), the authors hypothesized that primary psychopathy would be associated with a weak BIS and a normal BAS, whereas secondary psychopathy would be associated with a strong BAS and a normal BIS. Results for primary psychopathy were as predicted. Results for secondary psychopathy clearly supported the strong BAS prediction but provided mixed support for the normal BIS prediction.     

Psychopathy is related to negative affectivity but not to anxiety sensitivity

Although the hypothesis that psychopathic individuals are characterized by a reduced capacity for experiencing anxiety is central to many theories of psychopathy, most prior studies have examined anxiety and fear measures generally considered outdated in the literature. Moreover, prior findings are mixed, with several studies reporting no relationships between psychopathy and anxiety, and others suggesting negative relationships for the affective, interpersonal aspects of the disorder and positive relationships for the antisocial behavior dimension. To examine whether psychopathy dimensions are associated with contemporary measures of anxiety, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and State Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait scale were administered to 157 male inmates. Participants also completed the MMPI-derived Welsh Anxiety Scale (WAS), commonly used in psychopathy studies. Analyses provide no evidence for a negative relationship between psychopathy's affective, interpersonal factor and anxiety sensitivity after controlling for trait anxiety. Trait anxiety and WAS scores were positively associated with the antisocial behavior dimension of psychopathy. Findings do replicate prior relationships between the WAS and psychopathy, suggesting the WAS may measure aspects of negative affectivity that differ from anxiety.     

Family transactions and relapse in bipolar disorder

This study examined whether patient symptoms and relatives' affective behavior, when expressed during directly observed family interactions, are associated with the short-term course of bipolar disorder. Twenty-seven bipolar patients and their relatives participated in two 10-minute family interactions when patients were discharged after a manic episode. Results indicated that patients who showed high levels of odd and grandiose thinking during the interactions were more likely to relapse during a 9-month followup period than patients who did not show these symptoms during the family discussions. Relapse was also associated with high rates of harshly critical and directly supportive statements by relatives. Patients' odd thinking and relatives' harsh criticism were significantly more likely to be correlated when patients relapsed (r = .53) than when they did not relapse (r = .12). Results suggest that bipolar patients who show increased signs of residual symptomatology during family transactions during the post-hospital period are at increased relapse risk. The data also suggest that relatives of relapsing patients cope with these symptoms by increasing both positive and negative affective behaviors. Moreover, a bidirectional, interactional relationship between patients' symptoms and relatives' coping style seems to capture best the role of the family in predicting relapse in bipolar disorder.     

A review and update on the practice of evaluating Miranda comprehension

This article summarizes recent developments in constitutional law relevant to the Miranda warning. We describe the origins of the warning, concerns about the use of the Miranda warning, perspectives on the utility of the warning, and the relevance of the warning. We describe how the warning has changed over time, requirements for administering the warning, and procedures that police use in delivering the warning and obtaining confessions. We review case law relevant to "coerced" Miranda waivers and confessions, changes over time in the court's interpretation of what constitutes "coercion," use of the warning with special populations, and the recent focus in case law on individual factors that might impair Miranda comprehension. We review empirical research on factors associated with deficits in Miranda comprehension. We integrate case law rulings and empirical research into suggested approaches to forensic assessment of Miranda comprehension.     

Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in healthy male paramedics during a workday and a nonworkday.

Compared ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in 30 paramedics during a 24-hr workday and a 24-hr nonworkday. During the 24-hr period as a whole, there were no BP differences between the workday and the nonworkday, but HR was higher during the nonworkday than during the workday. Systolic BP (SBP) recorded in the ambulance on the workday was elevated 9.8 mm Hg, compared to SBP recorded in a car on the nonworkday; it was also 7.2 mm Hg higher at the scene of an accident and at the hospital than during nonworkday activities. Ratings of moods in diaries indicated that paramedics felt more unhappiness, stress, and sadness and less feelings of pleasantness at work than at home. Rather than being elevated for the entire 24-hr period, work BP seemed to reflect the relatively high stress associated with specific situations in the work of a paramedic.     

Effects of maternal unavailability on mother-infant interactions

To determine the differential effects of maternal emotional and physical unavailability on infant interaction behavior, 4-month-old infants were subjected to the mothers' still-face and to a brief separation from the mother. Although the infants became more negative and agitated during both conditions, the still-face was more stressful.     

Green Keynesianism: Bringing the Entrepreneurial State Back in(to Question)?

Since the global financial crisis of 2007/8, proliferating calls for a Keynesian Green New Deal have cast the publicly (and environmentally) minded state as a necessary driver of technological innovation and social transformation, while, vice versa, innovation has moved to political centre-stage. The history and genesis of this particular Green Keynesian paradigm illustrate that some of its most high-profile proponents selectively and problematically frame twentieth-century Keynesianism and the ‘public good’. It is important to examine critically the calls for an ‘entrepreneurial state’ in which Green Keynesian ideas are mobilized in support of an agenda for continued and accelerated development of commercially focused, privately developed green technologies. The entrepreneurial state represents a neoliberal re-appropriation of Green Keynesianism, where dominant financial actors (in Silicon Valley, as opposed to on Wall Street) are tapped as the visionaries who can and should set our collective innovation agenda. Although there is a need for large-scale, coordinated techno-social efforts to address climate change, supporting ‘green’ innovation cannot simply be framed as maximizing ‘innovation’ while taking the ‘state’ for granted. Instead, it must entail a careful assessment of the specific trajectories of innovation being enabled and the underlying socio-natures that they maintain and promote. Science and technology studies (STS)-informed analysis allows, and compels, asking how socio-technological innovation and their constitutive power relations are crucially interrelated, making the reshaping of the state—still the primary institution and system of social relations of collective governance—a core but neglected political, technological and ecological project of our time, with a key role for STS.