The Presence of Odd Pricing in the Texas State Lottery1

We examined 443 drawings from the Texas state lottery from 1992 to 1997 to determine whether odd pricing effects would be found in multimillion-dollar lotteries. Specifically, we predicted that many more lottery tickets than expected would be purchased when the jackpot amount was $10 million than when it was $9 million. Three findings emerged. First, the higher the jackpot, the more tickets were purchased. Second, odd pricing effects were found at $10 million such that approximately 670,000 more tickets were purchased than expected. Third, controlling for the jackpot amount, there were approximately 620,000 fewer tickets purchased for each drawing per year. This final finding provides evidence that people are becoming less interested in multimillion-dollar lotteries.     

Risk and Prisoner's Dilemma: A Reinterpretation of Coombs' Re‐parameterization

We propose a model to measure risk in a prisoner's dilemma based on Coombs' (1973) re‐parameterization of the game as an individual risk decision‐making task that chooses between a gamble of cooperation and another gamble of defection. Specifically, we propose an index, r, to represent the risk associated with cooperation relative to defection. In conjunction with Rapoport's (1967) index of cooperation (K), our formulation of risk allows us to construct games that vary in risk (as indexed by r) while controlling for cooperativeness (as indexed by K). Following utility analysis that models risk seeking as a convex utility function and risk averse as a concave function, we predict that risk‐seeking people cooperate more in games that the cooperation choice is more risky, whereas risk‐averse people cooperate more in games that the cooperation choice is less risky. In the three studies that we varied game parameters, used different measures of risk orientation and prosocial orientation and used different experimental procedures, we found robust results supporting our predictions. Theoretical analysis of our formulation further suggests that risk and cooperativeness of a prisoner's dilemma game is not entirely independent. Games that have a higher cooperativeness index are necessarily more risky. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Methylphenidate improves some but not all measures of ATTENTION,as measured by the TEA-Ch in medication-naïve children with ADHD

The Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch) is a reliable neuropsychological assessment of attention control in children. Methylphenidate (MPH) is an effective treatment to improve attentional difficulties in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Previous studies investigating the effects of MPH on attention performance of children with ADHD have produced mixed results and prior MPH usage may have confounded these results. No previous study has tested the effects of MPH on the entire TEA-Ch battery. This study investigated the effects of MPH on attention performance using the entire TEA-Ch in 51 medication-naïve children with ADHD compared with 35 nonmedicated typically developing children. All children were tested at baseline and after 6 weeks: The children with ADHD were medication-naïve at baseline, received MPH for 6 weeks and were tested whilst on medication at the second testing session. A beneficial effect of MPH administration was found on at least one subtest of each of the three forms of attention (selective, sustained, and attentional control) assessed by the TEA-Ch, independent of practice effects. MPH aided performance on the TEA-Ch tasks that were inherently nonarousing and that might require top-down control of attention. It is recommended that the TEA-Ch measures—Sky Search Count (selective attention),Score! (sustained attention), Creature Counting Time Taken for older children (attentional control), and Same Worlds (attentional control) be prioritized for use in future pharmacological studies using MPH.     

Disaster risk reduction: Psychological perspectives on preparedness

Facilitating people's ability to anticipate, prepare for and recover from disaster is an important component of the UNISDR strategy for disaster risk reduction. Following a discussion of the functional characteristics of preparedness, this paper first discusses how hazard characteristics and psychological constructs influence people's ability to anticipate uncertain future events. It then reviews how psychological theories (Health Belief Model, Protection Motivation Theory, PrE Theory, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Critical Awareness Theory, Social Marketing, Protective Action Decision Model, Social Capital, Community Engagement Theory and Social Identity Theory) can inform understanding of preparedness for likely and current hazard events. Discussion then then turns to applying concepts and theories to understanding preparedness for current disasters. The all-hazards and cross-cultural applicability of preparedness theory is discussed, as are a need for a critical appraisal of preparedness, its predictors, and the nature and development of the preparedness process and its application in facilitating effective intervention strategies.     

Disasters and helpers: Psychological dynamics and implications for counselling

This paper reviews the recent research on those individuals who might be regarded as the ‘hidden victims' of disasters—the ‘Helpers'. It focusses on the complex interaction between disaster events, coping strategies and individual and personality factors as determinants of psychological and emotional problems in helpers. The discussion seeks to heighten the awareness of professional counsellors of the contribution that they can make to the training, debriefing and counselling of individuals fulfilling the role of helper by illustrating the problems that typify the helper's experience and by discussing a technique for dealing with these problems. Being prepared for the type of problems likely to be encountered and how these problems might be tackled is an important determinant of the effectiveness of the service provided. Duckworth's (1986) problem-solving approach to counselling helpers is assessed and subsequently used as a basis for discussing the role of the above information in the design and application of this problem-solving approach to dealing with the difficulties experienced by helpers as a result of their involvement in disasters.     

BRONFENBRENNER'S MORAL DILEMMAS IN BRITAIN: CHILDREN,THEIR PEERS AND THEIR PARENTS

Le test des dilemmes moraux d'Urie Bronfenbrenner met les enfants en ptésence d'un certain nombre de situations naturelles dans lesquelles le choix des réponses possibles représente un conflit entre les normes de conduite qui sont approuvées par les adultes, altruistes et “correctes” et les normes de conduite qui relèvent de L'intérêt personnel ou de L'affiliation et qui sont “incorrectes”. Les sujets répondent au test dans trois conditions: une condition de base ou neutre, dans laquelle on leur dit que seuls les expérimentateurs auront connaissance de leurs réponses, et deux conditions expérimentales dans lesquelles on leur dit que les résultats seront portés à la connaissance de leurs parents ou de leurs camarades de classe. Cette méthode permet d'estimer dans une certaine mesure à quel niveau se situent les enfants dans le domaine “moral” ainsi que L'influence relative qu'exercent la pression des pairs ou celle des adultes dans les processus de socialisation, et la direction de cette influence. Les données recueillies en URSS et aux Etats-Unis ont montré que les deux types de pressions extérieures entrent en conflit aux Etats-Unis, mais qu'il existe en URSS un accord entre les normes. Devereux et Bronfenbrenner ont suggéré L'idée qu'en Grande-Bretagne le niveau des normes de conduite approuvées par les adultes était moindre et la pression des pairs particulièrement forte et source de situations conflictuelles. Deux cent soixante-quatorze enfants anglais de douze ans, choisis dans un large éventail d'écoles, ont subi les tests. Les résultats ont été analysés dans une perspective de comparaison inter-nation d'une part et de comparaisons entre les différents types d'écoles d'autre part. i. Les résultats ne confirment pas L'hypothése selon laquelle la conduite serait en général moins influencée par les adultes; 2. La comparaison entre type de pressions sociales confirme que les enfants britanniques ont en commun une “culture de pairs”, plutôt autonome et qu'ils ne répondent pas à la pression des adultes d'une manière simple et prévisible.     

Assessing the impact of disasters on helpers

This paper compares the effectiveness of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) and the Impact of Event Scale (IES) for assessing the impact of disasters on volunteers involved in the rescue work following the Armenian earthquake. The IES gave fewer zero scores and so was less likely to result in helpers being labelled symptom-free when they were not. It was conclude that IES was a more sensitive instrument and a more effective means of assessing the psychological consequences of disaster work.     

Psychological factors and adolescent illicit drug use: ethnicity and sex differences

Of four psychological factors examined in a representative sample of New York State secondary school students, only two, depressive mood and normlessness, show a positive relationship with the use of illicit drugs, especially drugs other than marihuana. The association of depressive mood and normlessness with illegal multiple drug use varies by ethnicity and sex, being consistently stronger among girls and among whites. In addition, depressive mood is negatively related to multiple drug use for black and Puerto Rican boys. These findings suggest that psychological factors play a different role in adolescent drug involvement within various social and cultural groups.     

Disaster rescue work: The consequences for the family

This paper reports on the findings of a pilot study investigating the impact of disaster relief work on the wives and family members of the relief workers. The study revealed that the wives did experience stress, although the nature of the problems identifed changed with each phase of disaster involvement. Children may also be affected. The age of the child may be an important determinant of the nature and severity of their problems. Interventions that could be adopted to deal with these concerns are outlined.     

Dynamic effects of self-efficacy on smoking lapse and relapse.

Self-efficacy (SE) is thought to be critical to success in smoking cessation both as an individual difference and as a dynamic process after a quit attempt. In this study, 214 smokers used palm-top computers to record day-to-day variations in SE during 4 weeks after quitting. SE remained at high and stable levels prior to a 1st lapse but decreased and became more variable thereafter. The authors used event history models with time-varying covariates to assess the effect of daily SE on lapse and relapse risk. Daily SE measures predicted an initial lapse on the subsequent day. However, this relationship was accounted for by stable baseline differences in SE (assessed by questionnaire), rather than by day-to-day dynamics in SE. Progression from 1st lapse to relapse was also examined. In this instance, daily SE predicted subsequent relapse risk, even when baseline SE and concurrent smoking were accounted for, suggesting the importance of SE dynamics for this stage of the relapse process.