Improving forensic tribunal decisions: the role of the clinician

Three empirical investigations of forensic decision-making were conducted: a study of 104 hearings by a forensic tribunal; an evaluation of which aspects of forensic patients' clinical presentation were empirical predictors of violence; and a survey of forensic clinicians to determine which factors they said they used to assess risk of violent recidivism and which they actually used. Results showed a significant correlation between actuarial risk and clinical advice to the tribunal, and a nonsignificant trend for patients higher in actuarial risk to receive more restrictive dispositions. Psychotic diagnoses and symptoms were not indicators of increased risk of violent recidivism. Clinicians endorsed some empirically valid indicators of risk, but also relied on some invalid indicators. There was also inconsistency between factors clinicians said they used and factors actually related to their hypothetical decision-making. An automated system is presented as an illustration of how the consistency and validity of forensic decisions could be enhanced.     

Further analysis of antecedent interventions on preschoolers' compliance

Functional analyses were conducted to identify reinforcers for noncompliance exhibited by 3 young children. Next, the effects of three antecedent-based interventions-noncontingent access to a preferred item, a warning, and a high-probability instructional sequence-were examined. The high-probability instructional sequence was effective for 1 child. Antecedent interventions were ineffective and extinction was necessary for the other 2 children.     

The impact of political skill on impression management effectiveness

In this study, the authors investigated the effect of an individual's political skill on the relationships between 5 different impression management tactics (intimidation, exemplification, ingratiation, self-promotion, and supplication) and supervisor evaluations of performance. To test these relationships, the authors used a matched sample of 173 supervisor-subordinate dyads who worked full time in a state agency. Findings showed that individuals who used high levels of any of the tactics and who were politically skilled achieved more desirable supervisor ratings than did those who used the tactics but were not politically skilled. Opposite results were found when impression management usage was low. That is, individuals who were not politically skilled created a more desirable image in their supervisors' eyes than did their politically skilled counterparts when they did not use these tactics. Practical and research implications for the findings as well as directions for future research are offered.     

Does repressive coping promote resilience? Affective-autonomic response discrepancy during bereavement

Traditional theories of coping emphasize the value of attending to and expressing negative emotion while recovering from traumatic life events. However, recent evidence suggests that the tendency to direct attention away from negative affective experience (i.e., repressive coping) may promote resilience following extremely aversive events (e.g., the death of a spouse). The current study extends this line of investigation by showing that both bereaved and nonbereaved individuals who exhibited repressive coping behavior--as measured by the discrepancy between affective experience and sympathetic nervous system response--had fewer symptoms of psychopathology, experienced fewer health problems and somatic complaints, and were rated as better adjusted by close friends than those who did not exhibit repressive coping. Results are discussed in terms of recent developments in cognitive and neuroimaging research suggesting that repressive coping may serve a protective function.     

Gender and sexual orientation differences in sexual response to sexual activities versus gender of actors in sexual films

In this study, the authors investigated the hypothesis that women's sexual orientation and sexual responses in the laboratory correlate less highly than do men's because women respond primarily to the sexual activities performed by actors, whereas men respond primarily to the gender of the actors. The participants were 20 homosexual women, 27 heterosexual women, 17 homosexual men, and 27 heterosexual men. The videotaped stimuli included men and women engaging in same-sex intercourse, solitary masturbation, or nude exercise (no sexual activity); human male-female copulation; and animal (bonobo chimpanzee or Pan paniscus) copulation. Genital and subjective sexual arousal were continuously recorded. The genital responses of both sexes were weakest to nude exercise and strongest to intercourse. As predicted, however, actor gender was more important for men than for women, and the level of sexual activity was more important for women than for men. Consistent with this result, women responded genitally to bonobo copulation, whereas men did not. An unexpected result was that homosexual women responded more to nude female targets exercising and masturbating than to nude male targets, whereas heterosexual women responded about the same to both sexes at each activity level.     

A test of competing models of the relationships among perceptions of organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and individual outcomes

The authors aimed to distinguish between perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) and perceived organizational support (POS). Previous research has shown that these two constructs are related, and whereas some researchers have suggested that POS mediates the relationships between POPs and outcomes (e.g., M. C. Andrews & K. M. Kacmar, 2001; R. Cropanzano, J. C. Howes, A. A. Grandey, & P. Toth, 1997), others have claimed that POPs mediate the relationships between POS and outcomes (e.g., G. R. Ferris, G. S. Russ, & P. M. Fandt, 1989). The authors investigated these competing models in an organizational sample of 418 employees from a water-management-district office. Results showed that POPs and POS were related to each other and to 5 outcomes: (a) job satisfaction, (b) pay satisfaction, (c) job strains, (d) role conflicts, and (e) turnover intentions. Results also indicated that POS fully mediated 3 of the 5 relationships between POPs and outcomes and partially mediated the other 2.     

The role of social axioms in predicting life satisfaction: a longitudinal study in Hong Kong

Data from a 1-year, longitudinal study were utilized to explore the role of five pan-cultural beliefs about the world (social axioms) in predicting life satisfaction. It was hypothesized that higher levels of social cynicism would predict lower satisfaction with life because cynical persons set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy of unrewarding social outcomes. The negative social feedback thus engendered results in lower levels of self-esteem, which mediates the effect of socially cynical beliefs on life satisfaction. These findings were confirmed in a longitudinal study of Chinese undergraduates in Hong Kong. Their implications were explored by considering the role of beliefs about␣the world upon additional mediators of life satisfaction in different cultural settings and for engaging in therapeutic interventions with distressed clients.     

No evidence of attentional bias in obsessive compulsive checking on the dot probe paradigm

Attentional biases have been proposed as maintaining and causal factors in anxiety, and it has been suggested that training attentional bias can impact on emotional responding. Given the severity of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and the considerable number of clients who do not respond to traditional therapies, understanding the factors that maintain anxiety in OCD is critical for the development of effective treatments. This study investigated attentional biases in a homogenous group of OCD patients whose primary concern was checking (OCD-Check; n = 18) compared to a Control group individually matched for age, gender and level of education (Control; n = 18) using a dot probe task. No evidence of attentional bias, or of differences in orienting to or disengaging from checking-relevant stimuli, was found in the OCD group compared to the matched Control group. From this data, it would appear that attentional bias may not be a feature of obsessive compulsive checking. The limitations of the present study and future research directions are discussed.     

Probing the human brain with stimulating electrodes: The story of Roberts Bartholow’s (1874) experiment on Mary Rafferty

Roberts Bartholow’s 1874 experiment on Mary Rafferty is widely cited as the first demonstration, by direct application of stimulating electrodes, of the motor excitability of the human cerebral cortex. The many accounts of the experiment, however, leave certain questions and details unexamined or unresolved, especially about Bartholow’s goals, the nature and quality of the evidence, and the experiment’s role in the history of theory and research on localisation of function. In this article, we try to fill these gaps and to tell the full story. We describe Bartholow’s career up to 1874, review the theoretical and empirical background for the experiment, and present Bartholow’s own account of the experiment as well as those of his supporters and critics. We then present our own analysis, assess the experiment’s influence on contemporaneous scientific opinion about cortical excitability, and trace its citation record into our own time. We also review and assess ethical criticisms of Bartholow and their effects on his career, and we close by discussing the role we think the experiment deserves to play in the history of theory and research on cortical excitability.     

Relationships Between Politics, Supervisor Communication, and Job Outcomes

Perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) are ever present and have been shown to have many negative effects. This study investigated the influence of perceptions of politics on the consequences of turnover intentions and job frustration; 2 important outcomes in the organizational politics literature. Additionally, this study examined the role of supervisor communication as a moderator of these relationships. We investigated the relationships in a sample of 246 alumni from a midwestern university who were working in a wide range of occupations. Our results provide support for positive associations between POPs and intentions to turnover and job frustration; supervisor communication moderated these relationships. Managerial recommendations and suggestions for future research are offered.