Compelled mental health examinations, liability decisions, and damage awards in sexual harrassment cases: Issues for jury research.

Controversy surrounds the role that expert psychological testimony may play in sexual harassment litigation. In some circumstances, the defense may compel sexual harassment plaintiffs to submit to a mental health examination by a defense expert. This examination may be used to discover whether the plaintiff has a previous history of sexual victimization, which the defense could use to weaken the plaintiff s claims that the sexual behavior was unwelcome and/or damaging. Some advocates have advised that plaintiffs not place their mental health into controversy, so that they can avoid these compelled examinations. In this article, the authors (a) review the legal basis for compelled mental health examinations, (b) review the relevant psychological literature on jury decision making in sexual harassment cases, and (c) examine the implications of compelled mental health examinations for jury decision making, suggesting avenues for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology 1986: Steven Penrod.

The Early Career Awards recognize the large number of excellent young psychologists. Three areas are considered each year, with areas rotated in three-year cycles. The areas considered for awards in 1986 were social, sensation and perception, and applied research. Steven Penrod is one of the 1986 recipients of the award "for distinguished and original contributions to research on legal decision making. His studies have significantly advanced our understanding of the relationship between rules of evidence and procedure and jury decision making, the reliability of eyewitness evidence, and the behavior of attorneys and judges. His research program reflects a deep understanding of the law; an imaginative application of psychological theories to legal questions; and a mastery of research methodology, ranging from mathematical and computer modeling to laboratory and field experimentation. His research exemplifies the best qualities of applied research: It speaks authoritatively to both the psychological and legal communities and has yielded both theoretical and practical insights into decision making." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental disorder as a Roschian concept: A critique of Wakefield's "harmful dysfunction" analysis.

J. C. Wakefield (1992a, 1992b, 1993) recently proposed that mental disorder is best conceptualized as a "harmful dysfunction," whereby "harm" is a value judgment regarding the undesirability of a condition, and "dysfunction" is the failure of a system to function as designed by natural selection. The authors maintain, however, that (a) many mental functions are not direct evolutionary adaptations, but rather adaptively neutral by-products of adaptations, (b) Wakefield's concept of the evolutionarily designed response neglects the fact that natural selection almost invariably results in substantial variability across individuals, and (c) many consensual disorders represent evolutionarily adaptive reactions to danger or loss. The authors propose that mental disorder is a Roschian concept characterized by instrinsically fuzzy boundaries and that Wakefield's analysis may only prolong scientific debate on a fundamentally nonscientific issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Jury decision making: 45 years of empirical research on deliberating groups.

This article provides a comprehensive review of the empirical research on jury decision making published between 1955 and 1999. In total, 206 distinguishable studies involving deliberating juries (actual or mock) were located and grouped into 4 categories on the basis of their focal variables: (a) procedural characteristics, (b) participant characteristics, (c) case characteristics, and (d) deliberation characteristics. Numerous factors were found to have consistent effects on jury decisions: definitions of key legal terms, verdict/sentence options, trial structure, jury-defendant demographic similarity, jury personality composition related to authoritarianism/dogmatism, jury attitude composition, defendant criminal history, evidence strength, pretrial publicity, inadmissible evidence, case type, and the initial distribution of juror verdict preferences during deliberation. Key findings, emergent themes, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hindsight bias, Daubert, and the silicone breast implant litigation: Making the case for court-appointed experts in complex medical and scientific litigation.

Empirical research indicates that knowledge of the outcome in a given case influences juror deliberations. This bias is compounded when the jury must evaluate complex scientific evidence. Because jurors typically lack the background necessary to evaluate such evidence, they often use hindsight as a "cognitive shortcut." "Junk science" can exacerbate this tendency by offering a "scientific" link between the injury and the product. Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (1993), properly applied, can defuse junk science testimony and mitigate its distorting effect on legal outcomes. The authors argue that judges carrying out Daubert's prerogatives should, where feasible, appoint independent experts and science panels to educate themselves and the jury, and thereby improve the likelihood that legal decisions will be based on sound scientific understanding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The case for expert testimony about eyewitness memory.

Eyewitness expert testimony informs a jury about psychological processes and accuracy related variables in eyewitness testimony. Appropriately chosen testimony is not prejudicial, and it is on sound scientific ground. Eyewitness research has established reliable, applicable findings and demonstrated that jurors have insufficient knowledge of some findings and poorly judge eyewitness accuracy. Studies of trial dynamics and reactions to eyewitnesses suggest a sizable risk of inordinate eyewitness impact, creating sizable risk of conviction on the basis of mistaken identifications. Trial simulations examining eyewitness expert testimony indicate it promotes modest, appropriate increases in skepticism about eyewitnesses, even when the expert gives a general overview of research and admits to limitations. The psychological and legal professions should develop responsible guidelines for use of expert testimony in court. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Legal standards, expertise, and experts in the resolution of contested child custody cases.

The authors critically evaluate the roles of forensic practitioners and psychological researchers in determinations of the best-interest-of-the-child standard (BICS) in child custody disputes. The authors examine (a) the existing empirical research on the adjustment of children of divorce, (b) the current forensic practice of mental health practitioners, (c) the standardized forensic assessment instruments available, and (d) the ethical dilemmas faced by mental health practitioners who work in this area. On the basis of their analysis, the authors argue that current evidence does not support most of the "expert testimony" proffered by mental health practitioners to the court. As a consequence, they posit that the BICS does not reflect either the needs of the legal system or the expertise of the psychological profession, and that the least detrimental alternative to the child standard more accurately meets the needs of both fields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Meaning of Race in Psychology and How to Change It: A Methodological Perspective.

The primary purpose of this article was to offer a methodological critique in support of arguments that racial categories should be replaced as explanatory constructs in psychological research and theory. To accomplish this goal, the authors (a) summarized arguments for why racial categories should be replaced; (b) used principles of the scientific method to show that racial categories lack conceptual meaning; (c) identified common errors in researchers' measurement, statistical analyses, and interpretation of racial categories as independent variables; and (d) used hierarchical regression analysis to illustrate a strategy for replacing racial categories in research designs with conceptual variables. Implications for changing the study of race in psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Use of Race Variables in Genetic Studies of Complex Traits and the Goal of Reducing Health Disparities: A Transdisciplinary Perspective.

The use of racial variables in genetic studies has become a matter of intense public debate, with implications for research design and translation into practice. Using research on smoking as a springboard, the authors examine the history of racial categories, current research practices, and arguments for and against using race variables in genetic analyses. The authors argue that the sociopolitical constructs appropriate for monitoring health disparities are not appropriate for use in genetic studies investigating the etiology of complex diseases. More powerful methods for addressing population structure exist, and race variables are unacceptable as gross proxies for numerous social/environmental factors that disproportionately affect minority populations. The authors conclude with recommendations for genetic researchers and policymakers, aimed at facilitating better science and producing new knowledge useful for reducing health disparities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective influence on judgments and decisions: Moving towards core mechanisms.

This article reviews psychological accounts of affective influence on judgments and decisions and argues that these accounts can be enriched by insights from biopsychology. The authors show how biopsychological research helps (1) reveal the sources of values and feelings; (2) predict when affect will influence attentional, perceptual, memorial, and decision processes; and (3) identify precise mechanisms underlying the interaction between affective and cognitive systems. The authors also propose a specific biopsychological model of affective priming phenomena and show how this model deals with data that are hard to explain with purely psychological accounts. The authors conclude that a multilevel biopsychological perspective will ultimately provide a more constrained and plausible foundation for understanding psychological processes underlying affect, judgment, and decision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Juror comprehension and public policy: Perceived problems and proposed solutions.

Laypersons, the media, and many legal scholars tend to attribute problems in the jury system to the dispositions of individual jurors and to recommend reforms in jury selection procedures and relaxation of the unanimity rule. Social scientists view problems as a consequence of the structure of the jurors' task and recommend reforms in trial procedures. After years of apathy, the legal system has proposed, and in some jurisdictions implemented, a variety of reforms, most of which are based on the social science perspective that the problem is not due to bad jurors but to unnecessary procedural obstacles to high-quality decision making. These reforms are described in the final section of the article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Considerations for experts in assessing the credibility of recovered memories of child sexual abuse: The importance of maintaining a case-specific focus.

In this article, the authors argue that a variety of psychological factors stand in the way of providing expert advice to the courts in terms of assessing the credibility of a complainant's account of sexual abuse when there is a significant delay in reporting. These include difficulties in assessing (a) the complainant's account of how he or she claims to have remembered or forgotten the abuse, (b) whether (and how) the claim of abuse originated within a therapeutic setting, and (c) the difficulty of generalizing from empirical evidence. It is argued that all of these issues can be more easily avoided if experts maintain a case-specific focus. In this article, the authors review both the psychological and legal controversies surrounding the false-recovered memory debate, discuss how courts approach the admissibility and use of recovered memory testimony, and conclude that expert witnesses should carefully consider the above points before drawing general conclusions from the literature and applying them to individual cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testimony and interrogation of minors: Assumptions about maturity and morality.

This article examines the legal histories and social contexts of testimony and interrogation involving minors, developmental research on suggestibility and judgment, interactions between development and legal/sociological contexts, and the reasoning behind how minors are treated in different legal contexts. The authors argue (a) that young witnesses, victims, and suspects alike possess youthful characteristics that influence their ability to validly inform legal processes, some of which were recently recognized by the Supreme Court as they apply to the juvenile death penalty, and (b) that consideration should be given to reforming current practices in the context of juvenile interrogation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methodological issues in assessment research with ethnic minorities.

Assessment research on ethnic minorities presents multiple methodological and conceptual challenges. This article addresses the difficulties in defining and examining ethnicity as a variable in psychological research. The authors assert that many of the problems stem from not making explicit the assumptions underlying the use of ethnicity as an explanatory variable and from inadequately describing cultural and contextual characteristics of ethnic minority samples. Also raised are common methodological problems encountered in examining race, ethnicity, and culture in assessment research, such as decisions regarding which populations to study, sampling methodologies, measure selection, method of assessment, and interpretation of results. Finally, some guidelines are offered for tackling some of the methodological dilemmas in assessment research with ethnic minorities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Qualitative research and its place in psychological science.

In discussing the place of diverse qualitative research within psychological science, the authors highlight the potential permeability of the quantitative-qualitative boundary and identify different ways of increasing communication between researchers specializing in different methods. Explicating diversity within qualitative research is facilitated, initially, through documenting the range of qualitative data collection and analytic methods available. The authors then consider the notion of paradigmatic frame and review debates on the current and future positioning of qualitative research within psychological science. In so doing, the authors argue that the different ways in which the concept of paradigm can be interpreted allow them to challenge the idea that diverse research paradigms are prima facie incommensurate. Further, reviewing the ways in which proponents of qualitative research are seeking to reconfigure the links between paradigms helps the authors to envisage how communication between research communities can be enhanced. This critical review allows the authors to systematize possible configurations for research practice in psychology on a continuum of paradigm integration and to specify associated criteria for judging intermethod coherence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recovered memories of child sexual abuse and liability: Society, science, and the law in a comparative setting.

Recognizing the influence of the American Psychological Association's Final Report (J. L. Alpert et al, see record 2000-13581-002) in setting the parameters for the ongoing debate on recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse, the authors describe how the law has responded to the force of the debate in the psychological literature and to the construction of childhood sexual abuse as a social issue. The article traces these developments both within the United States and elsewhere in the common law world. The authors, referring to, among other sources, the conclusions of the Final Report, address the liability of therapists whose patients recover memories of childhood sexual abuse. The conflicting body of law and the severe disagreement among commentators, as to both validity of clinical observations and broad social policy, discourage hope in a readily found consensus on therapists' liability. The authors argue, nevertheless, that careful legal and policy analysis allows for the formulation of an appropriate liability rule. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children of lesbian and gay parents: Psychology, law, and policy.

Legal and policy questions relevant to the lives of lesbian and gay parents and their children have recently been subjects of vigorous debate. Among the issues for which psychological research has been seen as particularly relevant are questions regarding child custody after divorce, same-sex marriage, adoption, and foster care. This article provides an overview of the current legal terrain for lesbian and gay parents and their children in the United States today, an overview of relevant social science research, and some commentary on the interface between the two. It is concluded that research findings on lesbian and gay parents and their children provide no warrant for legal discrimination against these families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Judging the jury.

Reviews the book, Judging the jury by Valerie P. Hans and Neil Vidmar (1986). Judging the Jury has a primary emphasis on the jury system in the United States. As the authors point out, the judicial models of the U.S. and Canada are quite different. The Canadian system is more similar to the British tradition, while the American courts have departed from this tradition in a number of significant ways. There is a greater reliance on the jury for both civil and criminal matters in the U.S.; indeed, Canadian courts do not even allow trial by jury for less serious crimes. In general, the American model gives the jury considerably more power and discretion. The book's focus on the U.S. obviously limits its application in Canada. Given that one author is a Canadian scholar and the other has extensive experience in Canadian jury research, perhaps their next book will feature the Canadian jury system. This book provides an excellent background for social scientists interested injury research, but it will also be of interest to anyone interested in the administration of justice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Involuntary commitments to public mental institutions: Issues involving the overrepresentation of Blacks and assessment of relevant functioning.

This article contributes to the debate in the mental health and legal systems concerning involuntary commitments to mental hospitals. The focus is on issues involving the overrepresentation of Black people among adults committed to U.S. public mental institutions and issues involving the assessment of relevant behavioral functioning in particular. Empirical findings, legal principles and procedures, and methodological limitations are reviewed to identify problems in current practice and relevant evidence bearing on those problems. Special emphasis is placed on the possible explanations for the overrepresentation of Blacks and on dependable assessments of relevant functioning that are needed to justify the state's coercive power to involuntarily confine people, regardless of race. The article concludes with a summary and recommendations for research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)