The validity and reliability of the Violence Risk Scale-Sexual Offender version: assessing sex offender risk and evaluating therapeutic change

The Violence Risk Scale-Sexual Offender version (VRS-SO) is a rating scale designed to assess risk and predict sexual recidivism, to measure and link treatment changes to sexual recidivism, and to inform the delivery of sexual offender treatment. The VRS-SO comprises 7 static and 17 dynamic items empirically or conceptually linked to sexual recidivism. Dynamic items with higher ratings identify treatment targets linked to sexual offending. A modified stages of change model assesses the offender's treatment readiness and change. File-based VRS-SO ratings were completed on 321 sex offenders followed up an average of 10 years post-release. VRS-SO scores predicted sexual and nonsexual violent recidivism post-release and demonstrated acceptable interrater reliability and concurrent validity. A factor analysis of the dynamic items generated 3 factors labeled Sexual Deviance, Criminality, and Treatment Responsivity, all of which predicted sexual recidivism and were differentially associated with different sex offender types. The dynamic items together made incremental contributions to sexual recidivism prediction after static risk was controlled for. Positive changes in the dynamic items, measured at pre- and posttreatment, were significantly related to reductions in sexual recidivism after risk and follow-up time were controlled for, suggesting that dynamic items are indeed dynamic or changeable in nature.     

Sequential effects in time perception

Taylor and Lupker (2001) reported that in a naming task, stimuli were named more rapidly when preceded by an easy-to-name stimulus than when preceded by a difficult-to-name stimulus (sequential effects). The goal of the present research was to investigate whether sequential effects could be explained in terms of time perception processes (within the context of Lupker, Brown, and Colombo’s [1997] time criterion account). Participants were required to name easy and difficult stimuli (high-frequency words and nonwords in Experiment 1; words only in Experiment 2). Each naming trial was followed by a set of asterisks (*****). The participants were required to press a button when they thought the asterisks had been presented for exactly 1 sec. Time intervals produced after naming difficult stimuli were longer than time intervals produced after naming easy stimuli. That is, time perception was affected by the difficulty of word/nonword naming in a way that carried over to the next stimulus, supporting the idea that carryover effects in time perception may be the source of sequential effects in the naming task.     

Switch costs when reading aloud words and nonwords: Evidence for shifting route emphasis?

Reynolds and Besner (2005) examined contextual control over the use of lexical and nonlexical routes by requiring participants to alternate between reading pairs of low-frequency exception words and pairs of nonwords. Their main finding was that latencies for both words (e.g., wad) and nonwords (e.g., flad) were slower when the immediately preceding trial involved the opposite item type rather than the same item type (a switch cost). The authors interpreted this result as evidence that under certain circumstances, readers have the ability to shift emphasis between their lexical and nonlexical routes. The present research shows that these results can be replicated using Reynolds and Besner’s items; however, the switch cost for words, but not for nonwords, disappears when more easily named nonwords are used. This result suggests that Reynolds and Besner’s results were likely due to something other than shifting route emphasis.     

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.     

Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity: a repetitive voice can sound like a chorus

Despite the importance of doing so, people do not always correctly estimate the distribution of opinions within their group. One important mechanism underlying such misjudgments is people's tendency to infer that a familiar opinion is a prevalent one, even when its familiarity derives solely from the repeated expression of 1 group member. Six experiments demonstrate this effect and show that it holds even when perceivers are consciously aware that the opinions come from 1 speaker. The results also indicate that the effect is due to opinion accessibility rather than a conscious inference about the meaning of opinion repetition in a group. Implications for social consensus estimation and social influence are discussed.     

Race, language, and mental evolution in Darwin's descent of man

Charles Darwin was notoriously ambiguous in his remarks about the relationship between human evolution and biological race. He stressed the original unity of the races, yet he also helped to popularize the notion of a racial hierarchy filling the gaps between the highest anthropoids and civilized Europeans. A focus on Darwin's explanation of how humans initially evolved, however, shows that he mainly stressed not hierarchy but a version of humanity's original mental unity. In his book The Descent of Man, Darwin emphasized a substantial degree of mental development (including the incipient use of language) in the early, monogenetic phase of human evolution. This development, he argued, necessarily came before primeval man's numerical increase, geographic dispersion, and racial diversification, because only thus could one explain how that group was able to spread at the expense of rival ape-like populations. This scenario stood opposed to a new evolutionary polygenism formulated in the wake of Darwin's Origin of Species by his ostensible supporters Alfred Russel Wallace and Ernst Haeckel. Darwin judged this outlook inadequate to the task of explaining humanity's emergence.     

Daily mood patterns and bulimic behaviors in the natural environment

Objective

Negative affect has been purported to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of bulimic behaviors. The objective of this study was to identify daily mood patterns in the natural environment exhibited by individuals with bulimia nervosa and to examine the relationship between these patterns and bulimic behaviors.

Method

One hundred thirty-three women aged 18-55 meeting DSM-IV criteria for bulimia nervosa were recruited through clinical referrals and community advertisements. Ecological momentary assessment was used to collect multiple ratings of negative affect, binge eating and purging each day for a two-week period using palmtop computers. Latent growth mixture modeling was used to identify daily mood patterns.

Results

Nine distinct daily mood patterns were identified. The highest rates of binge eating and purging episodes occurred on days characterized by stable high negative affect or increasing negative affect over the course of the day.

Conclusions

These findings support the conclusion that negative mood states are intimately tied to bulimic behaviors and may in fact precipitate such behavior.     

Forgiveness,Reconciliation, and Mechila: Integrating the Jewish Concept of Forgiveness Into Clinical Practice

The professional literature diverges in defining the role of forgiveness and reconciliation in counseling regarding how forgiveness and reconciliation are conceptualized from a professional and secular perspective. The Jewish conceptualization of forgiveness is multifaceted; mechila, the forgiveness of debt, is particularly important in providing a framework for forgiveness when the issue of reconciliation is involved. The authors offer an explanation of the Jewish conceptualization of forgiveness and discuss a way to infuse the concept of mechila into counseling practice on a broader level with all clients.