Behavioural coherence in group robbery: a circumplex model of offender and victim interactions

The behaviour of offenders and victims in 116 cases of group robbery (61 commercial, 55 personal) was examined. Four interpersonal themes were evident: dominance, submission, co‐operation and hostility. These themes are governed by the principles of complementarity such that offender dominance elicits victim submission (reciprocity) and vice versa, while co‐operative offenders tend to elicit victim co‐operation (correspondence). Hostile offences were hypothesised as eliciting hostility in victims, but few victims in the sample demonstrated active resistance. The existence of behavioural themes suggests that offenders within the same group behave in a homogenous fashion, which is explained by reference to group norms and processes of modelling. Further, differences in interpersonal themes were evident between commercial and personal robberies. Commercial robberies tend to involve greater levels of co‐operation than personal robberies, while personal robberies involve more hostility than commercial robberies. This is discussed in terms of situational and motivational elements of the robberies. Aggr. Behav. 32:330–342, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Factors influencing young children's risk of unintentional injury: Parenting style and strategies for teaching about home safety

This study examined mothers' teaching about home-safety issues to 24–30 month and 36–42 month old children, explored the relationship of teaching strategies to parenting styles, and assessed how these factors are related to children's risk of unintentional injury. A structured interview assessed home-safety issues relevant to falls, burns, cuts, poisoning, and suffocation/strangulation/choking. Mothers identified safety issues relevant to her child, and indicated the type and extent to which she utilized teaching as a strategy to address each safety issue. Standardized questionnaires provided information about parenting style and children's history of injuries. Results revealed that mothers' endorsements of home-safety issues did not vary with child age, mothers used teaching to manage safety issues for all types of injuries, and type of teaching strategy (explanations, rules, behavior modification) varied with parenting style. Greater use of explaining and less rule usage was linked to permissive parenting; these teaching strategies predicted children's medically-attended injury among highly-permissive mothers. Thus, teaching about safety is a common risk-management strategy mothers use to address hazards in the home. However, the specific type of teaching strategy used varies with parenting style, which has implications for children's risk of injury.     

Can Politics Practice Compassion?

On realist terms, politics is about power, security, and order, and the question of whether politics can practice compassion is irrelevant. The author argues that a politics of compassion is possible and necessary in order to address human security needs. She extend debates on care ethics to develop a politics of compassion, using the example of asylum seekers to demonstrate that politics can practice compassion with (1) attentiveness to the needs of vulnerable people who are suffering, (2) an active listening to the voices of the vulnerable, and (3) open, compassionate, and appropriate responses to particular needs.     

Marriage and Family Therapy Students’ Change in Multicultural Counseling Competencies after a Diversity Course

Attention to diversity is required in Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education-accredited programs, yet not much research exists regarding the effectiveness of graduate training on therapists’ multicultural counseling competencies. In this study, 12 students enrolled in a masters-level diversity class were given pre- and post-tests of their multicultural counseling competencies. Results showed that students significantly increased their multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills after completing the diversity class. The discussion includes implications for educators who seek to improve students’ multicultural counseling competencies.     

The roots of creativity

The various factors which seem to be important in the creative child with extraordinary potential include: A good biologic endowment, often with high intelligence and a correlation between special sensory sensitivities and other physical requirements to implement the special interest. There is also sometimes the capacity to utilize or else compensate for deficit. The fostering of interests by a parent or interested adult. Specific kinds of ongoing encouragement. Sometimes there is self-selection of interest by the child. The child must feel valued and loved. The family background and relationship of parents centers on the child. The time, place, and institutions foster the development of interest and value of the work and the child's belief in its value. The child is allowed freedom of development, without undue inhibition or restriction. Creative people have shown uneven development--the child is not "age-specific" generally. Gifted children have been observed to tolerate isolation and even loneliness well--these are often necessary conditions for developing skills. For some creative people, early object losses seem to be frequent. The creative child is curious and a keen observer. The creative child has an uncanny ability to make connections--to perceive similarities in the apparently dissimilar. The creative child is not hampered by conventional thought. The creative child has a capacity for love and devotion--or at least a positive orientation; a spiritness or passion; and a spirituality or unworldliness. It has been said that the poetic truths in a work of art are only half understood by its creator. Generally conveyed subliminally, these truths are revealed in different ways to different audiences at different times. Such is the view of William Livingstone (1987), and considering the childhood antecedents of creative work helps to understand why this is so.     

Olfactory preferences resulting from mere exposure in human neonates

Twenty-four (12 males, 12 females) healthy, full-term neonates were exposed to an artificial odorant within the first day after birth for approximately 24 hrs to determine if mere exposure would lead to a subsequent preference for that odor. In choice tests following the treatment period, female infants displayed preferential orientation to the exposure odor. Males, in contrast, displayed no evidence of preference for the exposure odor; rather, they demonstrated a right turning bias regardless of odor location. These data suggest that familiarization with an odor shortly after birth is sufficient for female infants to develop preferential responsiveness to that odor.     

Competition, cooperation, satisfaction, and the performance of complex tasks among air force cadets

Forty-eight U.S. Air Force Academy cadets were studied to examine the effects of individual attitudes and organizational reward structures on the performance of a complex, integrative task. An attitudinal survey was used to measure each subject’s preference for cooperative or competitive situations. Distinctly different group environments were created by giving four groups of six subjectscompetitive instructions and another four groupscooperative instructions. The performance criterion was the “sum” score across eight trials of a complex arcade-type computer game which required one subject to control horizontal movement and another to control vertical movement. Although neither attitude nor reward structure alone influenced performance, their interaction was found to be very significant; subjects performed poorly when the reward structure did not match their individual orientation. Implications for military and professional training programs are discussed.     

Lateralized brain injury and behavior problems in children

This study investigated the types of behavior problems found in children with lateralized brain lesions. Children referred for neuropsychological assessment were assigned to dominant (DH) or nondominant (NDH) groups on the basis of history of neurological disease or injury, findings on neurological examination, functional and structural laboratory findings, and neuropsychological assessment. Over two-thirds fell into the clinical range of behavior problems by parental report on the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist. Degrees of pathology were nearly equal. DH children showed more externalizing than internalizing symptomatology. NDH children showed more internalizing than externalizing behavior problems. Results are discussed in terms of symptom formation based on lateralization of lesion.