Firearm violence and the effects of gun control legislation

Two gun control laws designed to reduce different types of violent crimes were evaluated. In 1981, East St. Louis, IL, imposed stricter penalties for individuals who carry firearms outside their homes for protection (individuals could keep firearms in their homes). This law had only a temporary impact in reducing firearm use in assaults and robberies. In Evanston, IL, a slightly different approach was taken with legislation that banned handguns in the entire city (i.e., individuals could not keep handguns within their homes). A temporary reduction in firearm assaults occurred a few months before the gun law took effect. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Social Support Rejection and Reappraisal by Providers and Recipients1

Study 1 used recalled incidents involving offered or sought social support that were either rejected or later reappraised. Rejected offers of support were perceived to be ignored by would-be recipients, whereas rejected requests for support were viewed as due to lack of concern by would-be providers. For providers, upward reappraisal of support as well as downward reappraisal was usually based on direct feedback of consequences. Recipient reappraisals in either direction were also based mainly on outcomes that contradicted initial perceived effects of support. Study 2 provided additional evidence on the factors that might lead to rejected support. Evaluations of the effect of specific behaviors from potential support providers in hypothetical stress situations identified common behaviors such as offering advice, implying blame, second-guessing the victim's behavior, and minimizing the problem to be unhelpful. Implications for increasing the effective delivery of social support are discussed.     

Chronic self-destructiveness: Conceptualization,measurement, and initial validation of the construct

Individual differences in various behaviors suggest that those who are primarily motivated by current emotional factors are more likely than those motivated by more distant cognitive considerations to engage in acts that are ultimately self-destructive. To assess and explore these behavioral differences, 12 samples of undergraduate subjects, totaling 864 (527 females, 337 males), a group of 15 businesswomen, and 111 male VA patients were used to develop a measure of this construct in a series of reliability and construct validity studies. By means of internal-consistency item analyses, two cross-validated 52-item measures of chronic self-destructiveness were constructed for males and females. Reliability was established with respect to internal consistency (alpha coefficients range from .73 to .97) and temporal consistency over a 1-month period (test-retest correlations range from .90 to .98). There is a slight drop in chronic self-destructiveness scores across age groups. Test scores were found to be positively related to external locus of control, negatively related to Type A coronary-prone behavior, and unrelated to either social desirability response set or need for achievement. Individuals high in chronic self-destructiveness, compared to those with low scores, are more likely to be in treatment for drug or alcohol abuse, to report having cheated in courses, to have had traffic violations, to report having gone through a rebellious stage in adolescence, and to postpone obtaining a medical test for cancer. Chronic self-destructiveness appears to be a personality dimension that affects behavior across a wide range of ages and situations.We wish to thank John Wapner for his assistance in obtaining data in the clinical sample.