The emotional male victim: Effects of presentation mode on judged credibility

The emotional victim effect (EVE, i.e., that the emotionality of a victim's demeanor affects perceived credibility) is a robust research finding for female victims of rape but much less explored for other types of victims and crimes. In this article, we investigate the EVE with a male assault complainant. In addition, we vary the presentation mode via which the complainant is shown to the assessors. A sample of law students (N = 81) participated in an experiment where they viewed and assessed credibility of a male complainant who appeared either live or on video. The complainant behaved either in an emotional or a neutral manner. Result showed that the presentation mode but not the EVE affected the assessors' credibility assessments: The complainant was perceived as more truthful when communicating live, as opposed to via video. Practical implications, as well as the generality of the EVE, are discussed.     

Moral disengagement,the dark triad,and unethical consumer attitudes

PurposeBandura’s theory of moral disengagement explains how otherwise ethical persons can behave immorally. We examined whether a trait model of general personality and the “dark triad” underlay moral disengagement, the relationship these constructs have to unethical consumer attitudes, and whether moral disengagement provided incremental validity in the prediction of antisocial behaviour.MethodsSelf-report data were obtained from a community sample of 380 adults via an online survey that administered all measures.ResultsCorrelations between unethical consumer attitudes, lower Agreeableness, lower Conscientiousness, higher moral disengagement, higher psychopathy, and higher Machiavellianism were captured by a single factor. When this broad factor was examined using regression, demographic, personality and the dark triad traits all predicted moral disengagement, specific influences being age, education, Intellect, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. A similar model examining predictors of unethical consumer attitudes again found all blocks contributed to the outcome, with specific influence provided by age, Intellect, and moral disengagement, the latter showing incremental validity as a predictor of unethical consumer attitudes.ConclusionsMoral disengagement is based on low Agreeableness, Machiavellianism and psychopathic-type traits, but provides incremental validity in predicting antisocial attitudes to a trait model alone. Narcissism is neither related to moral disengagement, nor unethical consumer attitudes.     

Preventing Depression Among Early Adolescents in the Primary Care Setting: A Randomized Controlled Study of the Penn Resiliency Program

This study evaluated the Penn Resiliency Program's effectiveness in preventing depression when delivered by therapists in a primary care setting. Two-hundred and seventy-one 11- and 12-year-olds, with elevated depressive symptoms, were randomized to PRP or usual care. Over the 2-year follow-up, PRP improved explanatory style for positive events. PRP's effects on depressive symptoms and explanatory style for negative events were moderated by sex, with girls benefiting more than boys. Stronger effects were seen in high-fidelity groups than low-fidelity groups. PRP did not significantly prevent depressive disorders but significantly prevented depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorders (when combined) among high-symptom participants. Findings are discussed in relation to previous PRP studies and research on the dissemination of psychological interventions. An erratum to this article is available at .     

The prevention of anxiety and depression in children from disadvantaged schools

A randomised controlled trial evaluated the Aussie Optimism Program in preventing anxiety and depression. Grade 7 students (n = 496) from disadvantaged government schools in Perth Western Australia, participated. Six schools were randomly assigned to Aussie Optimism and six schools received their usual health education lessons. Students completed questionnaires on depression, anxiety, attribution style, and social skills. Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist. No significant group effects were found for student-reported data. Parents of intervention group only students reported reductions in internalizing problems at post-test. No follow-up group effects were significant. Students and teachers found the program acceptable.     

Before they're victims: Rethinking youth‐targeted relationship abuse prevention in Australia

Intimate partner abuse (or relationship abuse) against women is recognised as a major public health issue. A number of relationship abuse prevention programs targeted at youth have been developed in Australia. These programs are generally aimed at changing attitudes, and take the stance that girls should not be viewed as being responsible for protecting themselves against violence. In this paper it is argued that the current, dominant focus on physical violence, over other forms of relationship abuse, limits the potential effectiveness of programs that might otherwise help young people to resist the development of abusive dynamics. It is also argued that programs that presume a victim status for girls and a perpetrator status for boys are both inconsistent with contemporary evidence and unlikely to empower young people at risk of chronic perpetration and/or victimisation to avoid such outcomes. A dyadic slippery slope model of chronic relationship abuse is proposed and new directions for prevention research in this area are suggested.     

Challenges using motivational interviewing as an adjunct to exposure therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder

Exposure and response prevention (EX/RP) is an efficacious treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, patients often do not adhere fully to EX/RP procedures. Motivational interviewing (MI) has been shown to improve treatment adherence in other disorders. This pilot study used a randomized controlled design to examine whether MI can be successfully added to EX/RP and whether this intervention (EX/RP + MI) could improve patient adherence to between-session EX/RP procedures relative to EX/RP alone. Thirty adults with OCD were randomized to 18 sessions of EX/RP or EX/RP + MI. Therapists rated patient adherence at each exposure session. Independent evaluators assessed change in OCD and depressive symptoms, and patients completed self-report measures of readiness for change and quality of life. The two treatment conditions differed in degree of congruence with MI but not in conduct of EX/RP procedures. Both groups experienced clinically significant improvement in OCD symptoms, without significant group differences in patient adherence. There are several possible reasons why EX/RP + MI had no effect on patient adherence compared to standard EX/RP, each of which has important implications for the design of future MI studies in OCD. We recommend that MI be further evaluated in OCD by exploring alternative modes of delivery and by focusing on patients less ready for change than the current sample.     

Simulating Natural History: Walking with Dinosaurs as Hyper-Real Edutainment

Abstract

Real-world experiments that test new technologies can affect policy and practice by introducing new objects of intervention through tinkering; the ad hoc work of realigning relations in the face of frictions, surprises, and disturbances that occur when introducing a technology. In a pilot study on aggression detection, tinkering moved aggression in and out of the human body. In the end, the pilot defined aggression as a set of acoustic-physical variables representing the aroused human body, alongside other signals of aggression. How aggression as an object intervention was shaped by tinkering is relevant because it involved inclusions and exclusions by the authorities who identified aggression, the methods they applied, and mandate for intervention. A focus on relations that are tinkered within a real-world experiment permits critical engagement with this format. Although the real-world experimental format is credited with producing knowledge about a technology's ‘actual’ performance, actors and events at the pilot study location were made only selectively relevant. Analyses of real-world experiments should therefore explain how experiments selectively make the world relevant, giving only particular objects of intervention a truth status.     

Immediate and Latent Interlimb Transfer of Gait Stability Adaptation Following Repeated Exposure to Slips

The authors trained 21 participants by using blocked-and-mixed exposure to right-side slips and then caused them to slip unexpectedly on the untrained left side. Authors retested participants with a right slip and a left slip at 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, and 4 months. The authors found that preslip stability on the first untrained left slip improved and was significantly greater than that on the first right slip, which probably contributed to the reduction in incidence of falls from ~30% to ~10%. Postslip stability and base of support (BOS) slip velocity were similar to those on the first right slip and much lower than those on the last right slip. Increases in pre- and postslip stabilities and BOS slip velocity during the left slip led to reductions in backward balance loss (BLOB) from ~95% on initial left slip to ~60% and to ~25% on the 1st and 3rd retest sessions, respectively. In contrast, BLOB remained at a constant ~40% level on the right slip of the same retest sessions. The results indicate a partial immediate transfer and a possible latent transfer.     

Community Living Skills

Persons with chronic mental health problems are frequently found living in the community at varying quality of life levels. Though rehabilitation programs are suitable for patients with acute exacerbations of mental health pathology, these programs are necessary but not sufficient to meet the needs of the chronic person. Long-term reliance on biomedically-based rehabilitation can produce dependence on the system and maintain reliance on the "sick role" which is counterproductive for current trends related to deinstitutionalization and "least restrictive environment." The intent of this article is to focus on an one alternative service delivery model- psychoeducation. The potentials for this mode to normalize or maximize independence is discussed and two community living skills programs for the chronically mentally ill are described to exemplify the application of psychoeducation.     

Evaluating the Acceptability of Four Versions of a Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program

Fifty-nine college students used a modified version of the Treatment Evaluation Inventory-Short Form to evaluate the acceptability of four versions of a sexual abuse prevention program for 10-year-old children. The four versions include an information-based training approach or a behavioral skills training (BST) approach with a focus on strangers or known individuals as perpetrators of sexual abuse. A significant effect was found for both training method and type of perpetrator, with information-based approaches involving strangers as perpetrators rated the most acceptable. These results suggest that college students were most comfortable with sexual abuse prevention training programs for 10-year-olds when the programs did not involve an active rehearsal component and when the program focused on abuse perpetrated by a stranger rather than a known individual.