Serious Offenders: Using Evidence to Predict and Manage the Risk

In response to the risk of serious further offences, an evidence‐based approach is needed in risk management. A recent joint prison–probation inspection of the management of life sentence prisoners in six U.K. prisons found that the quality of assessment and plans to manage risk of harm to others was insufficient, with too much focus on the offender's verbal account. The present paper discusses observations of regular prisoner behaviour as the basis for predictions, and summarizes results of an evaluation of this methodology based on a sample of high‐risk category prisoners released into the community. Prison behaviour has not traditionally been seen as a valid risk marker for violent recidivism, which may be because typically only conspicuous high‐level behaviours are considered by risk management panels. Our research suggests that we are neglecting a valuable source of information on risk by failing to observe on‐going and consistent pre‐release behaviour. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do Demanding Conditions Help or Hurt Self‐Regulation?

Although everyday life is often demanding, it remains unclear how demanding conditions impact self‐regulation. Some theories suggest that demanding conditions impair self‐regulation, by undermining autonomy, interfering with skilled performance and working memory, and depleting energy resources. Other theories, however, suggest that demanding conditions improve self‐regulation by mobilizing super‐ordinate control processes. The present article integrates both kinds of theories by proposing that the self‐regulatory impact of demanding conditions depends on how people adapt to such conditions. When people are action‐oriented, demanding conditions may lead to improved self‐regulation. When people are state‐oriented, demanding conditions may lead to impaired self‐regulation. Consistent with this idea, action versus state orientation strongly moderates the influence of demands on self‐regulatory performance. The impact of demanding conditions on self‐regulation is thus not fixed, but modifiable by psychological processes.     

The relation between early mother–infant skin‐to‐skin contact and later maternal sensitivity in South African mothers of low birth weight infants

The relation between early mother–infant skin‐to‐skin contact (SSC) and mothers' subsequent sensitivity to their low birth weight infants was investigated in a study of 12 mother–infant dyads who participated in a South African randomized control study of early SSC. The dyads were visited in the home when infants were under 1 year. Amounts of SSC were taken from hospital records and home interviews. Videotapes of mother–infant interactions in the home were scored for maternal sensitivity on the Maternal Behavior Q‐Sort (D.R. Pederson, G. Moran, & S. Bento, 1999) and the Maternal Behavior subscale of the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale (G. Sumner & A. Spietz, 1994). Amount of SSC in infants' first 24 hr correlated with amount of SSC through the first month. Amount of SSC in infants' first 24 hr independently accounted for maternal sensitivity on both measures, indicating that early mother–infant SSC predicted subsequent maternal sensitivity.     

Treatment outcomes for female offenders: relationship to number of Axis I diagnoses

This article describes a study that examined the relationship between multiple Axis I mental health diagnoses and treatment outcomes for female offenders in prison substance abuse treatment programs. Preliminary findings of the effectiveness of therapeutic community (TC) treatment, modified for female offenders, relative to a control cognitive behavioral treatment condition, are presented. The hypothesis--that participants who fit into multiple diagnostic categories have more dysfunctional symptoms and behaviors at baseline--was confirmed; however, a hypothesized relationship between the number of Axis I diagnoses and 6 month treatment outcomes across five domains (mental health, trauma exposure, substance use, HIV needle risk behaviors, and HIV sexual risk) was not supported. Across all Axis I mental health groups, TC treatment was significantly more effective than the control condition overall, as well as on measures of mental health symptoms and HIV sexual risk. These findings suggest that this TC treatment program, as modified, is an effective model for women with varied diagnoses and diagnostic complexities.     

Role Overload,Job Satisfaction,Leisure Satisfaction,and Psychological Health Among Employed Women

Role overload, job satisfaction, leisure satisfaction, and psychological health were measured for 155 women who were employed full time. Role overload was negatively correlated with psychological health, job satisfaction, and leisure satisfaction. Job satisfaction and leisure satisfaction were positively correlated with psychological health. Stepwise regression analyses indicated that role overload was the strongest predictor of psychological health and that job satisfaction and leisure satisfaction, respectively, added significantly to the prediction equation.     

Weight as an Embodiment of Importance

ABSTRACT— Four studies show that the abstract concept of importance is grounded in bodily experiences of weight. Participants provided judgments of importance while they held either a heavy or a light clipboard. Holding a heavy clipboard increased judgments of monetary value (Study 1) and made participants consider fair decision-making procedures to be more important (Study 2). It also caused more elaborate thinking, as indicated by higher consistency between related judgments (Study 3) and by greater polarization of agreement ratings for strong versus weak arguments (Study 4). In line with an embodied perspective on cognition, these findings suggest that, much as weight makes people invest more physical effort in dealing with concrete objects, it also makes people invest more cognitive effort in dealing with abstract issues.