The deprofessionalization of civil commitment.

Replies to comments made by Page (see record 2007-09054-001) on the original article "Indigenous Paraprofessional and Involuntary Civil Commitment: A Return to Community Values" (see record 1985-10551-001). The suggestions I offered for the reform of existing civil commitment laws are, clearly, "liberal," in so much as the intention was to curtail the medical prerogative in civil commitment procedures. Based on this proposal Page seems to have made the assumption that if I espoused such a reform I must be, naturally, politically liberal, which I am. Page errs, however, when he states that my policy suggestions rest on the belief that the community is also liberal and as such will exert a "liberalizing influence upon the social control and 'person-blaming' aspects of establishment psychiatry." I made no such assumption, however, I did indicate that the layperson may, in fact, have a potentially "corrective" influence in the accurate prediction of dangerous behaviour in civil commitment procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The Most Significant Article ..."

The present author comments that as far as psychology doing anything for society is concerned, the most significant article to appear this decade, in my estimation, is Campbell's "Reforms as Experiments" (see record 1969-17253-001). The implications it has for social reforms are staggering-especially for America, the country that has (a) more resources for reform than most of the world put together and also (b) a colossal inability to solve most of its social problems. The big question, then, is how long this expensive form of fumbling with lives and material resources will continue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theory, explanation, and a third generation of theoretical development in social gerontology

Efforts at cumulative knowledge building in social gerontology have been lax, judging from research articles published in journals between 1990 and 1994. Too little attention has been paid to the cumulative development of theory; readers are left with many empirical generalizations but underdeveloped explanations by which to interpret findings and build upon them in subsequent research. To assist future theory development in social gerontology, we review seven theoretical perspectives referenced most frequently in recent journals: (1) social constructionist, (2) social exchange, (3) life course, (4) feminist, (5) age stratification (age and society), (6) political economy of aging, and (7) critical theory. We suggest that, taken together, these represent a "third generation" of explanation in social gerontology, noting their debt to older and more established traditions in social science theory. We argue that authors and journal reviewers should place more emphasis on theory development - which means, most simply, the construction of explicit explanations in accounting for empirical findings - if knowledge development about social aspects of aging is to be cumulative, systematic, and incremental.     

Dosimetric verification of the dynamic intensity-modulated radiation therapy of 92 patients

The initial period in the establishment of syringe exchange projects is often characterized by overt conflict: between community AIDS activists, on the one hand, and public officials and political leaders who remain ideologically opposed to the introduction of measures perceived as condoning illicit drug use. In this context, professionals concerned with legitimating the new institutions of syringe exchange may sometimes neglect aspects of their everyday logistics and social organization, obscuring the important choices which have to be made to carry these initiatives forward. In particular, the contrast between formally-constituted institutions-the "storefront" or "community-based" syringe exchange programs (SEPs)-and the model of low-threshold syringe availability through pharmacies, vending machines, and user networks, is here presented not as an either/or choice but rather as a pair of complementary strategies which respond to diverse needs and target different populations. The advantages and disadvantages of each particular approach make it likely that maximum effectiveness will be achieved through a combination of every possible form of needle distribution, each tailored to specific and cultural circumstances. The case is here examined in the light of the experience of the SEPs in New York City, from their clandestine origins in 1990 through their first years of official functioning in 1992-1996.     

Exchange rates and old people

This paper extends earlier work on aging as a process of exchange by focusing on the issue of exchange rates and how they are negotiated. Intergenerational social exchange is conceptualized as a "boundary crossing" in which the older partner must learn the decision rules appropriate to interaction within a younger stratum. Because of the power differential that, in many cases, favors the middle-aged partner, the "discourse" governing the exchange is typically that of the younger exchange partner. Age is an "exportable" status characteristic, one that is used to assess the legitimacy of a person's claim for a certain level of reward. Old age places the exchange partner in a double bind. Access to power resources declines with age, placing the person in the unenviable position of negotiating from weakness. In addition, those resources which he/she does possess are exchanged for less than they would be if held by a younger person.     

Social science, social policy, and scientific research.

Comments that, in the article on child care and maternal employment, L. B. Silverstein (see record 1992-05293-001) forgot the important distinction between social science and social policy. Silverstein talked about social reform and public/government policy as if they were synonymous. Psychological research can suggest strategies for changing social norms but cannot suggest which social norms should be changed or prove that government should be involved in changing them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why are people reluctant to exchange lottery tickets?

Students were given lottery tickets and then were asked to exchange their ticket for another one, plus a small monetary incentive. Less than 50% agreed. In contrast, when given pens, and the same exchange offer, over 90% agreed. Experimental control rules out that the reluctance to exchange lottery tickets results from (1) overestimation of the winning probability of one's own ticket; (2) a concern that the ticket, once exchanged, might win in the hands of another; (3) from an overly low transaction cost; (4) "paranoia" due to the bizarreness of the social situation we created; or (5) "bonding" to the ticket. Rather, the possibility for ex post regret that exists when exchanging lottery tickets, but not pens, underlies this reluctance. The notion of regret is broader than previously supposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structured forms of social behaviour: Colleague relations in the real estate business.

Notes that behavioral sociologists and psychologists have been concerned mainly with explaining elementary forms of social behavior and with building towards macrolevel from microlevel social processes. The present article attempts to add to behavioral sociology by showing how reward and cost opportunities at the microlevel are "structured by" wider social systems for most complex forms of social behavior. An analysis of colleague relations among residential real estate agents illustrates the argument. Their role as middlemen in a wider system of property exchange, and the commission system through which they are rewarded, force agents into a situation of "structural ambivalence" in their colleague relations. This structural ambivalence is dealt with by a set of collective defense mechanisms which account for the dynamics of emergent daily interaction among colleagues. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Yesterday's Principles: Today's Challenges.

Discusses some of the questions faced by industrial psychologists in light of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other fair employment codes. The author suggests that it is appropriate and timely for social scientists to reexamine and expand their role amidst the inevitable pressures of social legislation. For example, the psychologists' responsibility may, with justification, be extended to developing a climate of readiness on the part of clients for accepting social change. This can be done in part by developing an "idea exchange" to be published in our professional media incorporating the studies and experiences of psychologists in general relating to the problems arising out of the civil rights developments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Alcohol consumption and workplace absenteeism: The moderating effect of social support”: Correction.

Reports an error in "Alcohol consumption and workplace absenteeism: The moderating effect of social support" by Samuel B. Bacharach, Peter A. Bamberger and Michal Biron (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2010[Mar], Vol 95[2], 334-348). The R-square estimates for models 4 and 5 of Table 2 on page 343 are incorrectly reported. The correct R-square values are .10 for both of these models (instead of .010). All the other values reported in this table are correct. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-04488-009.) Although it is commonly assumed that alcohol consumption has a significant impact on employee absenteeism, the nature of the alcohol–absence relationship remains poorly understood. Proposing that alcohol impairment likely serves as a key mechanism linking drinking and work absence, we posit that this relationship is likely governed less by the amount of alcohol consumed and more by the way it is consumed. Using a prospective study design and a random sample of urban transit workers, we found that the frequency of heavy episodic drinking over the previous month is positively associated with the number of days of absence recorded in the subsequent 12-month period, whereas modal consumption (a metric capturing the typical amount of alcohol consumed in a given period of time) is not. In addition, consistent with both volitional treatments of absenteeism and social exchange theory, perceived coworker support was found to attenuate, and supervisory support to amplify, the link between the frequency of heavy episodic drinking and absenteeism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social deprivation stress induces adaptative changes of opioid mechanisms in the rat tail artery

Brief (7-14 days) social deprivation stress has been found to increase blood pressure in Wistar rats, an effect dependent on activation of opioid function. The role of central opioids in this and other responses to stress has been repeatedly determined, but the possible involvement of modifications of peripheral opioid mechanisms is poorly understood. To further increase this knowledge, we have examined the opioid sensitivity of tail arteries taken from social deprived Wistar rats by studying the effect of beta-endorphin and DADLE "in vitro". Both opioids inhibited the electrically-induced constriction of the preparations in a dose-dependent manner, but these actions were significantly attenuated after 7-14 days of social deprivation. When the rats were isolated for 30-35 days, the hypertensive response was still present but the arteries from group-housed and isolated animals no longer showed differential sensitivity to opioids. This difference with respect to 7-14 days of isolation could be related to age-dependent changes of opioid function, which were observed among group-housed animals. The results suggest that social deprivation stress induces an adaptation of the tail arteries to the opioid effects on contractility. It is suggested that this endogenous adaptation could be contributing to the hypertensive response observed after social deprivation.     

The standard of social justice as a research process.

An empirical perspective is presented illustrating the application of the principles and methods of community psychology for conceptualizing the ideal of "social justice." The substantiative content of the paper is based on an analysis of the selective nature of sexual assaults which reach the criminal justice system, and in the disparity of sentences given to those found guilty, in comparison to other types of cases. These outcomes are proposed as operational definitions for conceptualizing the ideal of social justice. The application of this standard for cases of sexual assault suggests the justice system "discounts" the seriousness of these offenses, resulting in a legal doctrine which excuses male violence against women. Implications for law reform are proposed based on the need for an accommodation of the social/psychological concept of "difference" in the legal definition of sexual assault, and in the greater use of evaluation research as a process of legal scholarship for monitoring how well the ideal of social justice is achieved by the criminal justice system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confucian and Socratic learning.

Replies to the comments by R. A. R. Gurung (see record 2003-03405-011) and J. Li (see record 2003-03405-012) regarding comments on the article by R. G. Tweed and D. R. Lehman (2001) which stated that a Confucian-Socratic framework provides a structure for analyzing culture-influenced aspects of academic learning. In this article, Tweed and Lehman argued that these ancient exemplars model approaches to learning continue to differentiate students within a modern Canadian postsecondary context. In this reply, Tweed and Lehman advise caution in how Gurung placed their Confucian-Socratic framework within the context of prior theory on education and epistemological development because these models were developed exclusively in the West. Furthermore, Tweed and Lehman believe that Li's argument misinterpreted their article, and that they should of consistently used the term "personal reform" rather than "behavioral reform" in order to communicate the depth of personal change envisioned by Confucius. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

More on Campbell.

Comments on "Reforms as experiments" by D. T. Campbell (American Psychologist, 1969, Vol 24, 404-429, see record 1969-17253-001). Campbell's suggestions for an extension of experimental thinking into our legislatures could be the most important contribution that any psychologist has made to our society. Why not form an APA committee to confer with our colleagues in the social sciences to see whether institutions can be proposed to maximize the experimental approach to legislation? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evolution and "evolutionary behavorism": Comment.

Comments on W. R. Woodward's (see record 1982-30310-001) article on the discovery of social behaviorism and social learning theory from 1870 through 1980. The article suggests that within several concepts that are related to social behaviorism and social learning theory, the same "discovery" has been made to account for an important part of behavioral variance. This involves a functional feedback model with internal variables and some kind of selection via symbolic processes that are termed "evolutionary." The present author raises concern for Woodward's use of the biological evolutionary theory in this context. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Let Me Inform You How to Tell a Convincing Story: CBCA and Reality Monitoring Scores as a Function of Age, Coaching, and Deception.

The first aim of this experiment was to examine whether being informed about a method of detecting deception called Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) would increase participants' CBCA scores when deceptive so that they might then be classified as truthful. The second aim was to investigate whether Reality Monitoring could be used as an alternative tool for verbal lie detection. The third aim was to examine whether participants' social skills (social anxiety, self-monitoring, and social adroitness) affected their CBCA scores. Participants (aged 6-8, 11-12, 14-15, and undergraduates) participated in a "rubbing the blackboard" event. In a subsequent interview they told the truth or lied about the event, after they were or were not taught some CBCA criteria. Truth-tellers obtained higher CBCA scores than liars, and those who were informed about CBCA obtained higher scores than those who were not, except for the 6-8 year-olds. CBCA scores were also significantly correlated with social skills. Finally, Reality Monitoring was a useful alternative to CBCA for distinguishing between liars and truth-tellers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social exchange theory: An integrative approach to social conformity.

Theoretical and research studies of social conformity are reviewed and integrated through a revised social exchange model. The concept of utility is discarded from the basic economic model in favor of a revealed preference, and this approach is then applied to the existing work on social conformity and approval. The behavior of Ss in conformity and approval studies is assumed to reflect a preference in the manner done in economics. Predictions made from the exchange model are found to be consistent with the existing knowledge about conformity. It is concluded that exchange theory provides a useful vehicle for data integration and generation of new hypotheses about social conformity. The model allows for the process of social conformity to be considered in dynamic terms, treating the influence source and influenced person simultaneously. (7 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral control pollution.

Argues against G. C. Davison and R. B. Stuart's (see record 1975-30208-001) support for contingency management in institutional and individual therapeutic situations. In focusing on the consent-giving process, Davison and Stuart ignore the effect of "behavioral control pollution." Artificial management of social contingencies could upset the naturally evolved balance on control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)