Death Qualification as Systematic Exclusion of Jurors With Certain Religious and Other Characteristics

The death‐qualification process has been criticized because it tends to eliminate certain groups of individuals at a higher rate than others. This study examined whether the process systematically excludes jurors based on religious characteristics, justice philosophy, cognitive processing, and demographics. Results indicated that death qualification can be predicted by religious affiliation, devotionalism, fundamentalism, and Biblical interpretism; but not evangelism. Death qualification is predicted by the belief that murderers deserved to die, but not by beliefs that criminals deserve mercy, forgiveness, or payback. Cognitive processing had no impact on death qualification. Finally, gender and race predicted death qualification, while age and prior jury duty did not. These results are discussed in terms of implications for perceived legitimacy of the system.     

Decision‐making in civil litigation: Effects of attorney credibility,evidence strength,and juror cognitive processing

The current study examined the relationship between juror cognitive processing (measured by need for cognition [NFC]), attorney credibility, evidence strength, and civil litigation verdicts (liability, likelihood of causation, and compensatory damages). Participants (N = 446) viewed a videotaped mock civil trial in which the credibility of the attorneys and the strength of the plaintiff's evidence were manipulated. Plaintiff attorney credibility, defense attorney credibility, and strength of evidence interacted with one another for liability verdicts. In the strong evidence condition, the likelihood of a liable verdict was higher for a credible plaintiff attorney than a non‐credible plaintiff attorney when facing a non‐credible defense attorney. In the ambiguous evidence condition, the likelihood of a liable verdict was higher for a credible plaintiff attorney than a non‐credible plaintiff attorney when facing a credible defense attorney. Plaintiff attorney credibility, however, was found to be more influential on jurors’ decision‐making than case evidence for likelihood of causation and compensatory damage award decisions. Participants’ NFC also interacted with plaintiff attorney credibility. High NFC jurors were more influenced by a credible plaintiff attorney than low NFC jurors. Although these findings are counter to common findings in the NFC literature, they conform to a body of literature that supports the notion that jurors view attorney credibility as a piece of case evidence and not a peripheral cue as is often assumed. Thus, the findings indicate that attorneys do matter to the outcomes of cases. Policy and practice implications for attorneys and the courts are discussed.     

Illusory control as a function of the motivation to avoid randomly determined aversive outcomes

Previous research has provided evidence that the need to attain appetitive outcomes positively affects the certainty of winning that outcome in purely chance-based games. Three experiments were conducted to test the notion that the need to avoid an aversive outcome affects winning confidence in the same fashion. In Experiment 1, participants were given the opportunity to avoid having to give an introductory remark (low need) or an impromptu speech (high need) to a group of peers by winning a chance-based card-drawing game. As predicted, confidence-in-winning ratings were found to be a positive function of outcome need. In Experiment 2, participants faced a similar card-drawing procedure but this time could avoid ostensibly having their arms submersed in either room temperature water (low need) or cold water (high need) need. Again as expected, results showed that participants in the high need condition not only displayed greater winning confidence but also believed more skill was involved in playing the purely chance-based game. In Experiment 3, the methodology of Experiment 1 was replicated incorporating a skill measure. The results of this experiment mirrored those of Experiment 2. Results of these investigations are discussed in terms of control theory.

Militarism, human welfare, and the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists

A case study is presented of the American Psychological Association (APA), as a health care organization that promotes human welfare. APA includes policies on human welfare in its Ethical Principles of Psychologists and even lists the advancement of psychology "as a means of promoting human welfare" on its letterhead. Nevertheless, APA has other policies and activities based on military and weapons work that appear to conflict with its promotion of human welfare. Although military work in and of itself may not necessarily be problematic, work that contributes to people purposely being harmed or killed should be squared with the association's ethical guidelines. The results presented here show that this may not be the case: There currently appears to be little justification in the Ethical Principles for work intended to harm people. APA's active lobbying, research, and development for the military are documented here, in relation to an analysis of the Ethical Principles. APA's uncritical support for Operation Desert Storm is examined specifically, with regard to weapons technology and therapeutic treatment of U.S. soldiers on the battlefield. This one-sided support for victims of the war is not in keeping with a Hippocratic health care ethic to treat patients needing care, and to do so with neutrality and impartiality. Similarities to a historical example of nationalistic mental health ethics are discussed, with a review of the development of the German Institute for Psychological Research and Psychotherapy and of the German Society for Psychology in the Nazi wartime effort and the Holocaust. The results here show similar deficiencies in APA's ethical standards, not the least of which is that the code applies to individual members but not to APA policies, committees, or activities. This article concludes with suggested criteria for the Ethical Principles that would at least (a) recognize the ambiguities in systematically developing and using weapons to hurt people and (b) provide an initial rationale of potential justifications.     

Attention as a mediating variable in the dynamics of bimanual coordination

The influence of focal attention on the coordination dynamics in a bimanual circle drawing task was investigated. Six right-handed and seven left-handed subjects performed bimanual circling movements, in two modes of coordination, symmetrical or asymmetrical. The frequency of movement was scaled by an auditory metronome from 1.50 Hz to 3.00 Hz in 7 steps. On each trial, subjects were required to attend either to the dominant hand, to a neutral position, or to the nondominant hand.The uniformity of the relative tangential angle was lower in asymmetrical than in symmetrical conditions, but was not influenced by the direction of attention. In the asymmetrical mode, shifts in RTA relations, suggestive of loss of stability, were evident as the movement frequency was increased. Typically, these shifts were mediated by distortions of the trajectory of the nondominant limb. When the nondominant hand was the focus of attention, movements of this hand were more circular, and temporal variability was reduced, at the cost of a greater deviation from the target frequency. Movements of the dominant hand were not affected by the direction of attention. The findings show that although directed attention acts to modify the coordination dynamics, it does so primarily at the level of the individual hands, rather then in terms of the relation between them.     

Multimedia environmental decision-making simulation

A Hypercard-based computer simulation is described here that allows testing and projections about decision making in commons dilemmas. Although the program applies to many different types of value tradeoffs, it focuses on issues related to the harvesting (and overharvesting) of natural resources. In particular, it uses the Atlantic fisheries to look at conflicts between satisfying immediate needs and protecting long-term sustainability. The program’s calculations and projections are based on variables including fish stocks, replenishment rate, average household expenses, value per ton of fish, amount of fishing per year, number of competitors, harvesting strategy of competing decision makers, actual fish caught per year, yearly income, and the levels of harvesting that would maintain a sustainable level of the resource. The multimedia interface includes on-screen movies, moving graphs of results, still photos, cartoon animation, and audio instructions. This simulation program provides an engaging way of collecting data on decision making in social dilemmas and is also well suited to public/educational presentations.     

Information processing bias against emotional facial expressions in social anxiety

The present study examined whether information processing bias against emotional facial expressions is present among individuals with social anxiety. College students with high (high social anxiety group; n  = 26) and low social anxiety (low social anxiety group; n  = 26) performed three different types of working memory tasks: (a) ordering positive and negative facial expressions according to the intensity of emotion; (b) ordering pictures of faces according to age; and (c) ordering geometric shapes according to size. The high social anxiety group performed significantly more poorly than the low social anxiety group on the facial expression task, but not on the other two tasks with the nonemotional stimuli. These results suggest that high social anxiety interferes with processing of emotionally charged facial expressions.     

Unadulterated Arrogance: Autopsy of the Narcissistic Parental Alienator

This article guides professionals to recognize and gain insight of the inner dynamics and profile of the narcissist and the chronic parental alienator. It covers and exposes the commonalities of both their modus operandi and characteristics. Parental Alienation stems from intolerance, denigration, prejudice, and deep-seated dysfunction. In like manner, narcissistic abuse is caused by malignant self love and unadulterated arrogance. The deception of the Narcissistic Parental Alienator (NPA) is a cruel act. It often has many players on different stages that corrode the soul. The NPA is one who systematically deceives and turns their own children into little abuser proxies. Narcissists lie, manipulate, and speak in mixed messages. They cannot part with their illusions, and if their illusions are gone, they may still exist, but they have ceased to live.

All too often mental health and legal professionals and judges do not listen to the target parent and they are fooled or tolerate NPAs out of faith, trust and a sense of fairness. The NPA's deceit and defiance must be recognized and seen for what it is. Evaluators, courts, and therapists, at that point, should consider this danger directly and act swiftly. The quote by François de la Rochefoucauld; “The most deceitful persons spend their lives in blaming deceit, so as to use it on some great occasion to promote some great interest,” is strikingly similar to the conception of a divorce or custody dispute among NPAs, within the context of this topic. It is discouragingly common to see how few people are not shocked by deceit and how many are shocked by honesty. Educating, exposure, accountability, and resolve are the threads of the tapestry of this article on what these authors have coined the “Narcissistic Parental Alienator.”