Negligible scholarly impact of 38-witnesses parable.

Comments on an article (see record 2007-13085-001) by Manning, Levine and Collins, which talks about the original 1964 Kitty Genovese murder 38-witness account. Brock feels there were inaccuracies that have not affected the story's scholarly impact, or lack of impact. First, the story did not launch the social psychology of helping. Second, the story itself in no way "curtailed the imaginative space of helping research in social psychology," as claimed by Manning et al. Third, Manning et al. noted that the social psychology of helping was not included in a recent litany of useful contributions of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The legacy of the 38 witnesses and the importance of getting history right.

Responds to Brock's comments (see record 2008-12151-012) on the current author's original article (see record 2007-13085-001) which talks about the original 1964 Kitty Genovese murder 38-witness account. Manning, Levine, and Collins wish to leave it to readers of this journal to judge whether it is wise to continue to use in textbooks inaccurate accounts presented as facts, and whether it is sensible to conclude that despite being read by many thousands of students and researchers, the story of the 38 witnesses has had "negligible scholarly impact." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The expert as educator: Enhancing the rationality of verdicts in child sex abuse prosecutions.

The authors discuss the role of expert witnesses in the context of conventional understandings of trials at common law. Controversies surrounding the expert's role turn primarily on whether the expert should educate fact finders, as lay witnesses are required to do, or instead should provide conclusions to which the fact finder simply defers. The authors observe that the likelihood of irrational verdicts increases the more fact finders defer to experts and that experts become advocates often enough to make deference fertile ground for abuse. They conclude that the expert who educates better serves the justice system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disentangling the psychology and law of instrumental and reactive subtypes of aggression.

Behavioral scientists have distinguished an instrumental (or proactive) style of aggression from a style that is reactive (or hostile). Whereas instrumental aggression is cold-blooded, deliberate, and goal driven, reactive aggression is characterized by hot blood, impulsivity, and uncontrollable rage. Scholars have pointed to the distinction between murder (committed with malice aforethought) and manslaughter (enacted in the heat of passion in response to provocation) in criminal law as a reflection of the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy. Recently, B. J. Bushman and C. A. Anderson (2001) argued that the instrumental-reactive aggression distinction has outlived its usefulness in psychology and pointed to inconsistencies and confusion in criminal law applications as support for their position. But how similar is the legal distinction between murder and manslaughter to the instrumental-reactive aggression dichotomy in psychology? This article compares and contrasts the psychological and legal models and demonstrates that the purposes for distinguishing between instrumental and reactive aggression in psychology and law are undeniably different in meaningful ways. As such, a perceived shift in law away from differentiating murder and manslaughter has no bearing on the usefulness of the instrumental-reactive aggression distinction in psychological science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology, the Science Talent Search, and High School Teaching.

Based on their visit to the twelfth annual Science Talent Search, the authors note that few, if any, exhibits could be classified as psychology and suggest two hypotheses: (1) that psychology is of little interest (or is not challenging) to bright students; and (2) that they have had no opportunity to become acquainted with the science outside of Sunday supplement sob columns. The authors reject the first hypothesis and suggest that the second hypothesis has much greater attraction and likelihood. They believe that it is high time that the whole membership of the American Psychological Association (APA) consider seriously the problem of training and recruitment at the high school level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What (and Why) Is Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology is the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions. In this brief introduction, the authors give examples of current work in positive psychology and try to explain why the positive psychology movement has grown so quickly in just 5 years. They suggest that it filled a need: It guided researchers to understudied phenomena. The authors close by addressing some criticisms and shortcomings of positive psychology, such as the relative lack of progress in studying positive institutions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

John B. Watson's Alleged Sex Research: An Appraisal of the Evidence.

In 1974, a story was published about clandestine research done by John B. Watson that was judged to be so reprehensible that it was offered as the real reason he was fired from his faculty position at Johns Hopkins University in 1920, at perhaps the peak of his academic career. Watson's dismissal from Johns Hopkins may have been the most important event in his career, and it almost certainly altered the history of American psychology. Thus, this story has great significance. The claims of the story, however, have never been validated or invalidated. This article examines the evidence for and against the existence of such research and discusses Watson's academic dismissal in light of that evidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rotational Versus Nonrotational Internships: Let's Look at Reality.

Comments on the original article by Robert Langston that focuses on the value of a nonrotational clinical psychology internship (see record 1987-98336-047). The current authors suggest that, while making the case for a nonrotational internship, Langston has presented an inaccurate picture of the current state of internship training, and they seek to point out three fallacies inherent in Langston's view of the current training. As they do so, they assert that the many issues regarding professional training in psychology are hardly settled. They do suggest, though, that it is essential to relate their own ideas to existing criteria and evidence of current training practice, in order to effectively make decisions regarding necessary changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy and responsibility in the motivation of children's helping.

To investigate affective and dispositional factors in the motivation of children's helping, 60 children ranging from preschool to sixth grade were observed in laboratory distress incidents involving, as potential recipients of aid, a kitten, an adult experimenter, and a mother with an infant. Positive, negative, and neutral affect expressions were observed in two of the three distress incidents, and prosocial dispositions were assessed through children's attributions regarding the motives and feelings of characters in eight stories involving persons in distress. Results indicated that helping tended to be positively correlated with positive affect and negatively correlated with negative and neutral affect. Further evidence suggested that these correlations were primarily attributable to positive affects associated with helping itself rather than to affects experienced in witnessing the other's distress. Among story attributions, attributions of guilt were strongly and consistently related to helping and affect expression in the total sample and across grade groupings. Attributions of empathy and altruism were also related to helping, but only in the total sample. These results are interpreted as suggesting that it may not be empathic arousal alone that is most important for the motivation of helping, but the subjective meaning of that arousal in terms of an accompanying sense of responsibility for the other person's plight. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychologist in court: The special master.

The special master may require the production before him of evidence. He may rule upon the admissibility of evidence. He has the authority to put witnesses on oath and may himself examine them. He has substantially the powers of the court that appoints him. Qualifications of the expert-witness are considered. The problem of statuatory protections for the producer of a test is examined. "In theory, a master is not ordinarily required to make decisions about the law, only about the facts… . As psychology becomes a more mature discipline, the opportunities for us to play these unusual roles should grow." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observer bias in perceptions of responsibility.

Comments on an article by A. Colman (see record 1992-07516-001) regarding admissibility of mitigating psychological factors in South African murder trials. Although the present authors assert that Colman has done a service by drawing attention to a new trend in legal deliberations, they suggest that psychologists who have a pecuniary interest in the outcome may not be the best persons to judge the desirability of such evidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive interviewing procedures and suggestibility in children's recall

In this study the authors examine the effects of procedures adapted from the cognitive interview of R. E. Geiselman, R.P. Fisher, D.P. MacKinnon, and H.L. Holland (1985) on children's recall following exposure to misleading suggestions. Children aged 5-7 years and 9-11 years saw a videotaped story and were presented with misleading or neutral information concerning story details. All were later given free- and cued-recall tests preceded by standard interview instructions or instructions that reinstated the encoding context and encouraged exhaustive reporting. Increased recall accuracy was found following cognitive interview instructions. Both age groups were susceptible to misleading suggestions, but susceptibility was unaffected by interview type. The authors discuss the implications for interviewing child witnesses.     

Evidence evaluation in complex decision making.

Investigated the role of representation of evidence in the decision processes of 26 21–73 yr old experienced jurors to test a 3-stage story model of juror decision making. The 3 stages are evidence evaluation through story construction, decision alternative representation (verdict category establishment for the juror task), and story classification (selecting the verdict category that best fits the story based on the evidence). Ss made individual decisions on the verdicts for a filmed murder trial. Extensive interviews were conducted to determine Ss' cognitive representations of the evidence in the case, the verdict categories presented in the trial judge's instructions, and the procedures they were to follow according to law to reach a verdict. Results indicate, as hypothesized, that the trial evidence was represented in a story form. Differences among Ss in cognitive representations of evidence were correlated with their verdicts, although other aspects of the decision process (verdict category representations, application of the standard of proof procedural instruction) were not. It is concluded that adequate theories of decision making must emphasize cognitive aspects of performance, such as the representation of evidence. (64 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Whatever happened to psychology as the science of behavior?

Research on lower organisms by H. S. Jennings and Jacques Loeb, together with a positivistic approach to a philosophy of science, contributed to early efforts to explain behavior as a subject matter in its own right rather than as the effect of internal processes, mental or neural. The experimental analysis of behavior was an example of such a program. Psychology has remained, however, primarily a search for internal determiners. Three obstacles in its path as a science of behavior—humanistic psychology, the helping professions, and cognitive psychology—seem to explain why. Some of their unfortunate effects upon psychology as a science and as the basis of a technology are reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The expert witness, the adversary system, and the voice of reason: Reconciling impartiality and advocacy.

The legal system and the profession of psychology have differing expectations that cause psychologists who serve as expert witnesses to face fundamental conflicts. The rules of evidence demand that experts assist the trier of fact, the adversary system demands that experts serve the parties who retain them, and the ethical codes and guidelines demand that experts impartially assist the court, only in their area of competence. Psychological experts are left to sort out the competing demands, as well as their potential liability, while recognizing the importance of being persuasive. This article addresses the competing tensions expert witnesses face and offers an approach to reconciling these tensions that relies on competence, relevance, perspective, balance, and candor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rhetoric and the recovered memory debate.

Examines arguments about repression and dissociation in recent writings on the debate about the veracity of recovered memories of childhood abuse. Using the contributions of rhetorical psychology, discursive psychology, and conversational studies of argumentation, the authors studied the deployment of repression and dissociation by supporters of recovered memory, the refutations of skeptics, and the means by which arguments and counter-arguments were presented as factual. Supporters situate repression and dissociation within a long tradition of scholarly inquiry and draw on clients' personal accounts. Skeptics deny the existence of scientific evidence for the concept of repression. They suggest that dissociation, while a plausible phenomenon, cannot justifiably explain recovered memories. The implications for stasis and change within the recovered memory debate are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Altruism reconsidered: The effect of denying feedback on a victim's status to empathic witnesses.

Th empathy–altruism hypothesis interprets the empathy–helping link as evidence of true altruism. The negative state relief model interprets the same relation as an artifact of egoistic sadness-reduction. Neither view expresses the possibility that empathic concern reflects a general sensitivity to the emotional state of the victim and a specific sensitivity to vicarious joy at the resolution of the victim's needs. It is proposed that the prospect of empathic joy, conveyed by feedback (FB) from the help recipient, is essential to the special tendency of empathic witnesses to help. In neither of the alternative models does goal attainment depend on FB. Results of an experimental contrast were consistent with the empathic joy hypothesis and inconsistent with the alternatives. Empathically aroused witnesses offered help reliably to a person in distress only when they expected FB on the result; when denied FB, empathic witnesses were no more likely to help than their nonempathic counterparts. In contrast, nonempathic witnesses were unaffected by the availability of FB in deciding whether to help. Implications of an empathic joy-based motive are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Role of Representative Design in an Ecological Approach to Cognition.

Egon Brunswik argued that psychological processes are adapted to environmental properties. He proposed the method of representative design to capture these processes and advocated that psychology be a science of organism-environment relations. Representative design involves randomly sampling stimuli from the environment or creating stimuli in which environmental properties are preserved. This departs from systematic design. The authors review the development of representative design, examine its use in judgment and decision-making research, and demonstrate the effect of design on research findings. They suggest that some of the practical difficulties associated with representative design may be overcome with modern technologies. The importance of representative design in psychology and the implications of this method for ecological approaches to cognition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Organized/Disorganized Typology of Serial Murder: Myth or Model?

Despite weaknesses in the organized/disorganized classification of serial killers, it is drawn on for "offender profiles," theories of offending, and in murder trials. This dichotomy was therefore tested by the multidimensional scaling of the co-occurrence of 39 aspects of serial killings derived 100 murders committed by 100 U.S. serial killers. Results revealed no distinct subsets of offense characteristics reflecting the dichotomy. They showed a subset of organized features typical of most serial killings. Disorganized features are much rarer and do not form a distinct type. These results have implications for testing typologies supporting expert opinion or to help understand variations in criminal acts, as well as the development of a science of investigative psychology that goes beyond offender profiling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions.

Positive psychology has flourished in the last 5 years. The authors review recent developments in the field, including books, meetings, courses, and conferences. They also discuss the newly created classification of character strengths and virtues, a positive complement to the various editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (e. g., American Psychiatric Association, 1994), and present some cross-cultural findings that suggest a surprising ubiquity of strengths and virtues. Finally, the authors focus on psychological interventions that increase individual happiness. In a 6-group, random-assignment, placebo-controlled Internet study, the authors tested 5 purported happiness interventions and 1 plausible control exercise. They found that 3 of the interventions lastingly increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms. Positive interventions can supplement traditional interventions that relieve suffering and may someday be the practical legacy of positive psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)