The relationship of offending style to psychological and social risk factors in a sample of adolescent males

Research has indicated that life‐course persistent offenders typically vary their offending style, following a criminal career progression from co‐ to solo‐offending. Few studies have investigated the offenders who contemporaneously mix their style of offending. A sample of 1,047 male adolescent offenders from the Pathways to Desistance study was investigated over a 7‐year period. Participants were identified as solo, co or contemporaneous mixed style (CMS) offenders for each wave of data and one‐way between groups analysis of variance was conducted to examine variations between the different offending styles in terms of offending frequencies, exposure to violence, peer antisocial behaviour and influence, resistance to peer influence, impulse control and psychopathy. CMS offenders were found to consistently report significantly higher rates of offending and present significantly higher negative risk factors and lower protective risk factors than solo‐ and co‐offenders for the duration of the study. A multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate predictors of offending style with CMS as the reference category. Higher levels of exposure to violence and peer antisocial behaviour and lower levels of impulse control predicted membership of the CMS group for the first part of the study when compared with co‐offenders; and higher levels of exposure to violence and peer antisocial behaviour continued to predict CMS offending when compared to solo‐offenders until the end of the study.     

Assessing analytic applicants using an adapted version of the Australian schema for candidate competence

The author proposes an approach to the assessment of analytic applicants that is based on a schema relating to candidate competence. The protocol relies on the central notion that knowing what competencies we would be expecting of well‐functioning analysts leaves us well placed to know what capacities, and more importantly what potential capacities, we would be looking for in our aspiring applicants. The author is concerned that the traditional interview methods used have been rather individualistic, lacking in comprehensiveness and therefore not easy to teach. He makes a case for the described protocol having distinct advantages as an assessment tool over the traditional one, in that that it has clear, consistent, and comprehensive criteria, as well as a workable methodology. The author notes, as a particular advantage, the protocol's flexibility in being able to move fluidly from functioning as an instrument for selection, to an instrument for candidate evaluation. This allows, in situations of doubt, for particular competencies in a candidate to be further evaluated and tracked in an ongoing way whilst ‘in the field’.     

Priming the Vote: Campaign Effects in a U.S. Senate Election

A growing body of evidence suggests that campaigns affect voters by priming the criteria on which voters base their decisions. Yet virtually all of this work uses simulated campaign rhetoric and/or relies on indirect measures of vote choice. This paper combines a content analysis of media campaign coverage with an Election Day exit poll to explore the impact of a real-world campaign—the 2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota—on voters' decisions. In this case, the campaign did in fact prime exposed and attentive voters to base their decisions on the issues and images emphasized in the campaign. Such campaign effects were reinforced by interpersonal discussions. The results constitute the first demonstration of priming effects in a U.S. election with voters at the polls.     

Ambivalence, Uncertainty, and Processes of Candidate Evaluation

The on-line and memory-based processing models of candidate evaluation can be better understood by incorporating the concepts of ambivalence and uncertainty, both as subjective feeling states and as objective properties of information. An experiment was designed to address three questions: What are the relationships between ambivalence and uncertainty? What are the informational foundations of subjective ambivalence and uncertainty, and to what extent are they rooted in on-line (time of exposure) and memory-based (time of judgment) processes? What are the consequences of ambivalence and uncertainty for candidate evaluation? The results suggest that (1) subjective uncertainty is more strongly rooted in information about the candidate than is subjective ambivalence; (2) subjective uncertainty and (to a lesser extent) ambivalence are associated with an increased propensity to engage in memory-based processing; and (3) subjective ambivalence and uncertainty result in more negative evaluations, particularly among less sophisticated people. These results suggest ways in which the on-line and memory-based models might productively be combined.     

Fostering the educational value of candidate evaluation

Approaches to fostering the educational value of candidate evaluation are presented, in view of the plethora of intra‐psychic challenges that combine with many other complexities of learning to work as an analyst. Four integrally interrelated practices have been found to address sensitivities inherent in candidates’ experience of training in general, and being evaluated in particular. When applied in concert, the institute's evaluative process not only becomes more considered, but also better promotes a psychoanalytic attitude and minimizes the intrusion of evaluators’ personal responses. The first is defining and employing in synergy criteria for clinical immersion based on demonstration of the development and deepening of an analytic process, as well as the development of psychoanalytic competencies. The second is mandating institute‐wide application of guidelines for assessment of progression/graduation that are clearly explicated to all candidates and faculty. The third is transparent and timely communication between candidates and their supervisors and progression advisors regarding progress essential to a sense of collaboration. Fourth the progression review process must be systematic and in‐depth, with built‐in consultative relationships serving as checks and balances on personal elements. The implementation and educational impact of these practices are considered in the case of one candidate.     

How Social-Class Background Influences Perceptions of Political Leaders

In this research, we contribute to a nascent literature examining how cues to social class can guide voters' political judgments. Drawing upon and merging a voting-cues framework with the stereotype-content model, we test predictions that, relative to those from high-class backgrounds, candidates from lower- and working-class backgrounds will be perceived to be more ideologically liberal, warmer, and will be evaluated more positively. We test these predictions across four experimental studies (N_Study1 = 200; N_Study2 = 537; N_Study3 = 352; N_Study4 = 654) employing a candidate-evaluation paradigm; participants were presented with basic candidate background information, including cues to candidate class and other demographics, and were asked to read an excerpt from a speech before providing their judgments. Findings reveal that candidates from lower- and working-class backgrounds were perceived to be more liberal and warmer than those from high-class backgrounds. Additionally, we found that lower-class candidates were generally evaluated more positively than high-class candidates, and we found some evidence for evaluations across class to be moderated by participants' political ideology. These effects generally held across candidate gender and race. This work has important theoretical and practical implications offering insight into the social-class gap between the electorate and the largely elite elected policymakers.     

Rights and Morals, Issues, and Candidate Integrity: Insights into the Role of the News Media

In recent American political discourse, elections and debates tend to be presented by the news media as collisions of basic principles, with opposing parties advancing beliefs about what is right and what is wrong. When news coverage of an election campaign focuses on issues that emphasize rights and morals, voting behavior may be affected in two ways: Citizens become likely to form and make use of evaluations of the integrity of the candidates, and citizens become motivated to seek an issue-position "match" with candidates on those issues for which discourse is ethically charged (particularly when they hold a similar interpretation of the issue). These ideas were tested in an experiment in which labor union members and undergraduate students were presented with news stories about the contrasting positions of fictional candidates for elective office. Across three political environments, all information was held constant except for systematic alteration of a different issue in each environment. These three issues (abortion, gun control, and health care) vary in the types of value conflicts emphasized in news coverage. The results shed light on how individuals process, interpret, and use issue coverage in choosing among candidates.     

Oral Examination Anxiety in Physicians, Narcissism, and Object Relations

By applying object relations theory, both examiners and candidates can increase understanding of examination anxiety in oral certification in order to enhance the fairness and validity of the examinations. Unconscious images of self and others which examiners and candidates may project onto each other can affect the examination. The examiner must observe himself, the candidate, and the other examiner, lest a transference affecting the examination's progress occur, and to avoid an enactment, which may interfere with the examination. This observing should appropriately support the candidate in functioning at an optimal level of competence. Unconscious processes may prejudice the examiner's attitude towards a candidate, thus jeopardizing the examination's fairness and validity. The candidate's anxiety, based on projections onto the examiners, may interfere with his/her optimal functioning and affect the outcome. If a candidate's anticipatory anxiety is excessive, he/she needs to decide if it needs to be managed on a symptomatic or psychotherapeutic basis. Candidate and examiner both need to monitor their feelings during the examination in order to optimise the examination's fairness and validity. All these issues may also be considered in the relationship between psychiatric educators and trainees.     

The coming changes in psychoanalytic education: Part I

The author presents a critical overview of the literature on psychoanalytic education, focusing on criticism regarding structural aspects of our educational institutions. He then presents arguments for the need of radical changes in the organizational structure of institutes, and focuses on the problems of the training analysis system. He proposes concrete solutions for these problems, in the form of changes both in the assignment of responsibilities for the personal analysis of candidates and in the selection and function of supervisors.