Graphic Evidence of Violence: The Impact on Juror Decision-Making,the Influence of Judicial Instructions and the Effect of Juror Biases

The potential prejudicial impact of graphic evidence of violence (GEV) on juror decision-making has evoked concerns for defendants' due process rights. One hundred and twenty-eight student mock jurors were randomly allocated a murder trial summary containing either the presence or absence of GEV and either graphic-specific judicial instructions or standard judicial instructions. This study also explored potential emotive mechanisms underlying the proposed effect of GEV, including the Affect Infusion Model (AIM) and action tendencies. While the manipulations of GEV and judicial instructions were successful, neither the presence of GEV nor the inclusion of graphic-specific judicial instructions impacted upon mock juror verdicts. However, mock juror biases interacted with GEV to influence conviction thresholds, whereby the conviction thresholds of defence-biased mock jurors were higher in the presence of GEV. Furthermore, the presence of GEV resulted in mock jurors experiencing more stress upon reading the trial evidence. The study concluded that the proposed biasing effect of GEV was not supported by the research findings. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.     

Psychological and Legal Aspects of Dangerous Sex Offenders: A Review of the Literature

The purpose of this article is to review legislation on ‘dangerous sex offenders’ critically. Most modern legislation determines an individual to be ‘dangerous’ if he or she is at unacceptably high risk of committing further sexual violence. While the decision is judicial in practice, clinical testimony is utilised to inform courts’ decision-making. Dangerousness may be a normative (legal) construct, but it is reliant on clinical assessment. Offenders are not at risk only due to historical factors; the possibility of committing sexual violence in the future is likely affected by temporal factors such as response to therapy, substance misuse, and proximity to victims. It is not clear that mental illness would place an offender at risk, although certain personality disorders are considered to be risk factors. In reporting actual risk, clinicians need to consider a range of variables, and not exclusively use actuarial measures or unstructured clinical interviews.     

The big warm smile of cheaters: lateral posing biases and emotional expressions in displaying facial trustworthiness

ABSTRACT

Cheater detection, which is a prerequisite for the evolution of social cooperation, has been successfully simulated in laboratory settings. However, the process has not been perfect because the detection rate has usually been just above chance. The present study investigated the role of lateral posing biases and emotional expressions in displaying trustworthiness, which plays a crucial role in cheater detection. Participants (N?=?30 and 28 in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively) observed facial photographs of cheaters and cooperators in an economic game and evaluated their facial expressions in terms of emotional valence and arousal. The models in the photographs had turned their left or right cheek to the camera to display their trustworthiness in the economic game. The results indicated that cheaters showing their left cheek were rated as more emotionally positive than cheaters showing their right cheek. This lateral difference was not observed for cooperators. A left cheek advantage in emotional arousal was found for both cheaters and cooperators. These results suggest that cheaters use a fake smile on the emotional side of their face (i.e., the left) to conceal their uncooperative attitude.     

Factors Impacting upon Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders: The Role of Conservatism and Knowledge

Sex offender legislation is influenced by public pressure. However, there is evidence suggesting that the public's beliefs about sex offenders may be based upon myths and misperceptions. This study examined the relationship between knowledge of sex offenders in areas concerning their recidivism rates, treatment outcomes, and victim types, as well as current supervision and correctional management directed toward sex offenders and how this knowledge relates to overall attitudes towards sex offenders, sex offender treatment, and community notification laws. Further, we sought to examine how conservative belief systems affect this relationship. Using a sample of 559 undergraduate students we found that knowledge about sex offenders and conservative beliefs were significantly related to attitudes toward sex offenders such that those who had more conservative beliefs and less knowledge were more likely to have negative views toward sex offenders. Additionally, conservative belief systems moderated the relationship between knowledge about sex offenders and general attitudes toward sex offenders. These findings will be discussed as they pertain to the development of evidence-based sex offender policies.     

Authority and Punishment: On the Ideological Basis of Punitive Attitudes towards Criminals

Three explanations dominate the literature as to why people support tough sentencing of criminal offenders. The first is an instrumental perspective: people are concerned about becoming a victim of crime and they look to punishment to reduce future harm. The second is a relational perspective: people are concerned about community breakdown, and they support punishment to restore moral boundaries. The third is a psychological model based on ideological preferences: people desire conformity and authority in society, and they look to institutions to punish transgressions that threaten collective security. Building on the work of Tyler and Boeckmann (1977) Tyler, T. R., &; Boeckmann, R. J. (1997). Three strikes and you are out, but why? The psychology of public support for punishing rule breakers. Law and Society Review, 31, 237–265.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], we show that right-wing authoritarianism predicts both the extent to which people worry about social threats and the extent to which they support harsh punitive measures. Bridging research from political psychology and criminology, we conclude with the idea that popular punitive sentiment is grounded in an uncritical submission to authorities, an adherence to conservative moral values, and consonant concerns about collective security and cohesion.     

Religious Fundamentalism and Attitudes toward the Insanity Defense: The Mediating Roles of Criminal Attributions and Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill

Religious fundamentalism typically has been associated with negative perceptions of the insanity defense and defendants who use it. This association also has translated into verdict and sentencing decisions in insanity cases, such that higher endorsement of fundamentalist beliefs was associated with more punitive decisions. However, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between fundamentalism and insanity defense attitudes is unclear. Two possible explanations for this relationship include that (a) fundamentalism is associated with more dispositional attributions, and (b) fundamentalism is associated with more authoritarian attitudes toward mental illness and the mentally ill. Using structural equation modeling, attributions and attitudes were tested as mediators of the relationship between fundamentalism and insanity defense attitudes (i.e., strict liability attitudes and injustice–danger attitudes). These relationships were examined for theists and nontheists separately. Results suggest that personal attributions mediate the relationship between fundamentalism and injustice–danger attitudes, but authoritarian attitudes mediated the relationship between fundamentalism and strict liability attitudes. These relationships were only significant for theists. Implications for research and practice are discussed at the end.     

Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy in Italy: Results of a Survey and Comparison with U.S.A. and West German Data

In May 1983, the Italian Institute of Public Opinion DOXA ran, for the Italian League Against Epilepsy, a survey to evaluate public attitudes toward epilepsy in Italy. Eight questions were addressed to a sample of 1,043 adults. Twenty-seven percent did not know what epilepsy was. The least knowledge was observed among elderly people, in the southern regions and the islands, in villages more than in cities, and, in particular, among the poorest social classes. Sixty-one percent had known someone who had epilepsy, and 52% had seen someone having a seizure. When those familiar with epilepsy were asked if they would object to having their children in school or at play associate with persons with seizures, only 11% replied they would object. Seventy percent thought that persons with epilepsy should be employed in jobs like other people, and only 8% thought epilepsy to be a form of insanity. When those familiar with epilepsy were asked if epilepsy is a curable illness, one-third answered negatively, one-third answered affirmatively, and one-third had no personal opinion. The Italian data seem to fall within the standard of the American (1979) and West German (1978) surveys.     

The Effect on Mock-Juror Decision-Making of Power-of-Speech Within Eyewitness Testimony and Types of Scientific Evidence

This study examined whether manipulating power-of-speech within eyewitness testimony (EWT) and the type of scientific evidence (deoxyribonucleic acid [DNA] or fingerprint) had an effect on mock-juror decision-making. A between-participants design was utilised with jury-eligible participants randomly assigned to one of eight online experimental conditions. Participants were presented with a scenario followed by one type of scientific evidence and EWT. After each piece of evidence, participants made judgements of the probability of defendant guilt, judgement confidence and evidence strength. Lastly, participants chose a verdict and, if applicable, a sentence length. It was found that although powerful EWT was rated as more indicative of guilt (and indeed stronger than powerless EWT), only scientific evidence type affected the final verdicts with DNA evidence being associated with a greater number of guilty verdicts. Results suggest a biasing effect of DNA that outweighs the effect of other types of evidence including EWT.     

Discretionary Release Decisions of Actual and Mock Parole Board Members: Implications for Community Sentiment and Parole Decision-Making Research

Parole board members (PBMs) decide whether or not to release prisoners on parole. Parole release decisions can have a significant impact on the public so community sentiment is important. This research investigates whether actual PBMs make different release decisions than mock PBMs (college students). Participants decided whether to grant parole to a mock prisoner. Participants listed the factors that influenced their decision and their perceptions of the offender. As compared to mock PBMs, actual PBMs were more likely to deny parole, especially when perceptions of the inmate were controlled. Even so, actual PBMs perceived the prisoner as more likable and credible than mock PBMs. Findings may result from the different experiences, knowledge, and attributions that actual and mock PBMs make. Findings suggest mock PBMs may not be adequate proxies for studying PBM decision-making. When adopting parole guidelines, correction authorities should also take into account factors mock PBMs considered important.     

The Effect of an Education Program on Attitudes and Beliefs about Bullying and Bullying Behaviour in Junior Secondary School Students

This study assessed an intervention targeting bullying. Six schools were recruited, with 444 children aged between 12 and 15 years. Schools were randomly allocated to an intervention comprising education to students, parents and teachers about bullying and strategies believed to prevent bullying, or wait-list condition. Students reported bullying experiences on the Peer Relations Questionnaire and attitudes using the Attitude to Victim and Bully Scales, prior to the intervention and one year later. There was little difference between conditions on most measures. Short-term educational approaches appear to have little impact on bullying behaviour, and schools may need to develop alternative approaches.     

The General Public's Views on Suicide and Suicide Prevention,and their Perception of Participating in a Study on Attitudes towards Suicide

The aim of the presented study was to investigate whether common myths about suicide still prevail, what people in general think are the most common causes for suicide, whether suicide can be prevented, and if so, how. How subjects perceived their participation in a study on attitudes towards suicidal behavior, was also investigated. The Attitudes Towards Suicide questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 1,000 Norwegians. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that the common myths still prevail, that people in general mainly assign intrapersonal causes to suicide, with the belief that suicide can be prevented, and that they perceived their participation in the study positively. The value of the general public in suicide prevention and the need for increased openness and competence building were emphasized.     

Attitudes of medical students towards persons with mental disorders: A comparative study between Japan and Thailand

This study was conducted at three universities, two in Japan and one in Thailand, in order to elucidate the effects of medical education, especially with regard to contact experience on medical students' attitudes toward persons with mental disorders. Questionnaires, which included the Attitudes Towards Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP) and the Contact with Disabled Persons Scale (CDP), were distributed to 1st year students prior to the commencement of their medicine/psychiatry studies and distributed to 6th (or 5th) year students who had completed their psychiatric curriculum. The ATDP scores were lower for 6th year students at all universities, suggesting that post-education students had a more unfavorable attitude than pre-education students. Thai students indicated more unfavorable attitudes than did the Japanese students. Three factors were extracted from the ATDP scale and termed: negation of character, negation of ability and affirmation of normality. Four factors from the CDP scale were extracted and labeled intimate contact experience, ordinary contact experience, unpleasant contact experience and pleasant contact experience. Greater negative attitudes of post-education students than pre-education students were thought to attribute mainly to an increase in factor score of negation of ability and this result was correlated with an increase in factor score of ordinary contact experience in post-education students. Of the three ATDP factor scores, the higher score of Thai students for negation of character contributed to their overall unfavorable attitude scores. The cross-national similarities and differences of students' attitudes towards and contact experience with mentally disordered persons were discussed from the viewpoint of medical education.     

Organizational Climate Partially Mediates the Effect of Culture on Work Attitudes and Staff Turnover in Mental Health Services

Staff turnover in mental health service organizations is an ongoing problem with implications for staff morale, productivity, organizational effectiveness, and implementation of innovation. Recent studies in public sector services have examined the impact of organizational culture and climate on work attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment) and, ultimately, staff turnover. However, mediational models of the impact of culture and climate on work attitudes have not been examined. The present study examined full and partial mediation models of the effects of culture and climate on work attitudes and the subsequent impact of work attitudes on staff turnover. Multilevel structural equation models supported a partial mediation model in which organizational culture had both direct influence on work attitudes and indirect influence through organizational climate. Work attitudes significantly predicted one-year staff turnover rates. These findings support the contention that both culture and climate impact work attitudes and subsequent staff turnover.     

Decisions to shoot in a weapon identification task: The influence of cultural stereotypes and perceived threat on false positive errors

Abstract

The decision to shoot a gun engages executive control processes that can be biased by cultural stereotypes and perceived threat. The neural locus of the decision to shoot is likely to be found in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), where cognition and affect converge. Male military cadets at Norwich University (N=37) performed a weapon identification task in which they made rapid decisions to shoot when images of guns appeared briefly on a computer screen. Reaction times, error rates, and electroencephalogram (EEG) activity were recorded. Cadets reacted more quickly and accurately when guns were primed by images of Middle-Eastern males wearing traditional clothing. However, cadets also made more false positive errors when tools were primed by these images. Error-related negativity (ERN) was measured for each response. Deeper ERNs were found in the medial-frontal cortex following false positive responses. Cadets who made fewer errors also produced deeper ERNs, indicating stronger executive control. Pupil size was used to measure autonomic arousal related to perceived threat. Images of Middle-Eastern males in traditional clothing produced larger pupil sizes. An image of Osama bin Laden induced the largest pupil size, as would be predicted for the exemplar of Middle East terrorism. Cadets who showed greater increases in pupil size also made more false positive errors. Regression analyses were performed to evaluate predictions based on current models of perceived threat, stereotype activation, and cognitive control. Measures of pupil size (perceived threat) and ERN (cognitive control) explained significant proportions of the variance in false positive errors to Middle-Eastern males in traditional clothing, while measures of reaction time, signal detection response bias, and stimulus discriminability explained most of the remaining variance.     

Influence of anxiety,depression and looming cognitive style on auditory looming perception

Previous studies show that individuals with an anticipatory auditory looming bias over-estimate the closeness of a sound source that approaches them. Our present study bridges cognitive clinical and perception research, and provides evidence that anxiety symptoms and a particular putative cognitive style that creates vulnerability for anxiety (looming cognitive style, or LCS) are related to how people perceive this ecologically fundamental auditory warning signal. The effects of anxiety symptoms on the anticipatory auditory looming effect synergistically depend on the dimension of perceived personal danger assessed by the LCS (physical or social threat). Depression symptoms, in contrast to anxiety symptoms, predict a diminution of the auditory looming bias. Findings broaden our understanding of the links between cognitive-affective states and auditory perception processes and lend further support to past studies providing evidence that the looming cognitive style is related to bias in threat processing.     

Attitudes of healthcare staff in the treatment of children and adolescents with intellectual disability: A brief report

Background Children with an intellectual disability (ID) have complex health needs that extend beyond the expected cognitive deficits, affecting a myriad of developmental domains. These children frequently receive inadequate health care such that their needs remain poorly managed.

Methods Staff from the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network (N?=?160) completed a survey on attitudes, experiences, and training satisfaction when working with patients with ID. The 48-question needs analysis survey was distributed electronically to staff from a variety of disciplines and experience levels.

Results Although staff considered themselves broadly competent in caring for children with ID, they were less confident in specific skills, such as managing associated challenging behaviours in the clinic. As confidence in skills such as these decreased, the desire for further training increased.

Conclusion This study emphasises the importance of providing accessible, high-quality professional development resources to further develop these skills.     

Predictors of Practitioner Self-reported Use of Evidence-Based Practices: Practitioner Training,Clinical Setting,and Attitudes Toward Research

In light of the recent movement toward evidence-based practice (EBP) in mental health services, practitioner adoption of EBPs in clinical settings has emerged as an important area for study. This paper reports on the results of a national online survey of mental health practitioners in an attempt to identify correlates of self-reported EBP use in practice. The survey consisted of 214 mental health practitioners from 15 states drawn from a diverse set of clinical settings and representing a variety of theoretical orientations. The results indicated that practitioner training (i.e., taking a class in EBPs), the perceived openness of the clinical setting toward EBPs, and the practitioner's attitudes toward treatment research were significant predictors of self-reported EBP use. The relationship between clinical setting and EBP use was partially mediated by attitudes toward treatment research. Negative attitudes toward treatment research partially mediated the relationship between practitioner training and self-reported EBP use. The findings are presented within the context of efforts to increase EBP use in clinical settings and implications for clinical training, treatment research, and EBP dissemination efforts are discussed.     

The Effects of Social Skills Training vs. Psychoeducation on Negative Attitudes of Mothers of Persons with Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study

Objective

We compared the effects of two brief psychoeducation programs and social skills training on the negative attitudes of mothers with a son who has schizophrenia.

Methods

15 mothers with strong negative feelings towards a sons with schizophrenia were assigned by convenience to participate in one of three brief (5 session) group programs at an outpatient clinic: lecture-based psychoeducation, video-based psychoeducation, or social skills training. Assessments using the Patient Rejection Scale were conducted with the mothers at post-treatment, and 3-, 6-, and 9-months later.

Results

Mothers in the three groups demonstrated significantly different patterns of changes in their negative attitudes following treatment. Whereas the mothers who received the two psychoeducation interventions showed reductions in rejecting attitudes immediately following the program, their scores gradually increased at the subsequent follow-up assessments. In contrast, the mothers in the social skills training group showed reductions in negative attitudes that were sustained across all of the follow-up assessments.

Conclusion

Brief social skills training may be more effective than psychoeducation in reducing negative attitudes of parents who have an offspring with schizophrenia.     

Influence of emotional expression on memory recognition bias: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

BACKGROUND: Most studies of the influence of emotion on memory performance have focused on accuracy. However, there is evidence that emotion can influence other aspects of memory, in particular response bias (overall tendency to classify items as new or old regardless of the accuracy of the response). Here we investigated the behavioral and neural-related modulation of response bias by emotion. METHODS: Nineteen healthy individuals performed a recognition memory task on faces with happy, sad, and neutral expressions while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). RESULTS: We observed a familiarity (tendency to say "old") and novelty (tendency to say "new") bias for sad and happy faces, respectively. Novelty response bias was associated with amygdala and prefrontal cortex activity, whereas familiarity bias correlated with superior temporal gyrus activation. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that emotional expressions can have an influence on memory beyond simple accuracy and that this effect is in part mediated by the amygdala, a region previously implicated in emotional perception and memory. Our findings might have important clinical relevance, because they could help explain some of the inconsistencies in the literature regarding emotional memory deficits in psychiatric populations.