Consistency and retribution in children's immanent justice decisions.

72 children in kindergarten and 2nd and 4th grades were asked to evaluate behavior/accidental event sequences that represented all possible combinations of good or bad prior behavior followed by a lucky or unlucky event. Differences were found for grade level, for story type, and for their interaction. Stories describing bad behavior or those depicting evaluatively consistent events (behavior and accident both negative or both positive) evoked immanent justice responses at the kindergarten level; consistent stories evoked immanent justice interpretations at the Grade 2 level; and only the classic Piagetian story (bad behavior/unlucky outcome) tended to evoke immanent justice responses at the Grade 4 level. It is concluded that the child's judgment reflects both the need for punishment or retribution and the expectation of consistency. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Procedural justice as a criterion in allocation decisions.

336 undergraduates considered allocations made within 16 representative types of interpersonal relationships that varied with regard to social-emotional or task basis, cooperative or competitive style of interaction, causal or rule-directed behavior, and power distribution. Ss also rated the importance of 8 allocation criteria, such as objectivity and practicality, and of 6 criteria for judging procedural fairness, such as consistency and correctability. Results suggest that procedural justice was a more important criterion in decisions concerning resource allocations than were a variety of nonfairness criteria and that it was equal in importance to distributive justice. The meaning of procedural justice in allocations and the relation of procedural justice concerns to social allocation goals are explored. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of punishment on response latency in extraverts.

Previous findings indicate that in comparison to introverts, extraverts are prone to form responses that are resistant to interruption by punishment. Because the tendency to stop and reflect following punishment may be crucial for subsequent learning, the present study examined differences between introverts' and extraverts' reactions to punishment using response latency on the trial following punishment as the dependent variable. 66 extraverted and 66 introverted male undergraduates, selected on the basis of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire scores, performed a pattern-matching task in which they received noncontingent 50% success and 50% failure feedback under 3 incentive conditions: reward only, punishment only, or both. As predicted, a significant interaction was found in the both incentive condition, reflecting the tendency of extraverts to respond more quickly and introverts more slowly following punishment than reward. No significant effects were found in the other 2 conditions, although extraverts tended to respond more quickly overall when only reward was given. A 2nd experiment, with 101 male undergraduates, that used reward-only and punishment-only feedback replicated this finding and yielded a significant group?×?condition interaction. Results indicate that in contrast to introverts, extraverts are activated by the availability of reward and, paradoxically, that punishment may facilitate rather than interrupt extraverts' reward-seeking behavior. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of justice conditions on discrete emotions.

Research on organizational justice typically focuses on attitudinal, cognitive, or behavioral outcomes. Emotional reactions to justice have been suggested but not studied. The emotional appraisal literature provides a framework within which to analyze emotional reactions to just and unjust events. Undergraduates (67 females and 55 males) were randomly assigned to conditions crossing either a positive or negative outcome and a procedure which was either fair, biased in the participant's favor, or biased in favor of another, after which their emotional responses were assessed by self report. Results support predictions about discrete emotional reactions. As predicted by emotional-appraisal theories, reports of happiness were influenced only by outcome, whereas reports of guilt, anger, and to a lesser extent pride, were influenced by specific combinations of outcome and procedure. Results are discussed within an emotional appraisal framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Purposes of punishment: Effects of utilities of criminal sanctions on perceived appropriateness.

Examined 5 commonly discussed purposes of punishment (incapacitation, retribution, rehabilitation, general deterrence, and special deterrence) in 2 experiments. The experiments were designed to study how the perceived usefulness of penalties in serving these purposes changes with seriousness and type of crime, and how these perceived utilities affect judgments about the appropriateness of penalties for various crimes. In Exp I, 72 undergraduates completed a Just World Scale and then rated the usefulness of 30 possible penalties (including fines, probation terms, and imprisonment terms) in serving these purposes for 4 crimes. In Exp II, 6 judges rated the penalties for all 4 crimes. Importance weights derived from the data indicate retribution to be the most influential for all crimes among the judges and for all crimes except murder among the students. Results concerning deterrence indicate that Ss believe that more serious crimes are more difficult to deter than minor offenses. Results suggest that it is important to distinguish between what decision makers say the most important considerations ought to be and how their decisions actually appear to depend on these factors. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of missing application-blank information on personnel selection decisions: Do privacy protection strategies bias the outcome?

Using a 3?×?2?×?2 experimental design and data from 188 managers and professionals, this study examined the main and interactive effects of information management strategy (missing information vs. no reported conviction vs. reported conviction), race of the applicant (White vs. Black), and job type (cashier vs. road laborer) on ratings of an applicant's qualifications and likelihood of job success. For the qualification criterion, there were significant main effects for information management strategy and job type. In the case of the success criterion, there were significant main effects for information management strategy and job type and two significant two-way interactions. Constraints on the generalizability of the findings to personnel decision making in actual organizational contexts are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of intermittent and constant punishment on resistance to punishment in a free operant situation for the albino rat.

Trained male Wistar albino rats (10 experimental and 9 control Ss) to barpress for food reinforcement in a 2-bar cyclic response chain situation. Responding on 1 bar led also to a punishment (footshock) on either an intermittent or constant schedule. Both punishment schedules led to increased responding on the nonpunished bar and to initial response suppression followed by recovery on the punished bar. For Ss on the intermittent schedule, the response increase on the nonpunished bar was seen only after a punishment on the other bar. Similar effects were found for transfer time between the 2 bars. The effects of punishment on response to both bars were more pronounced for the intermittent punishment groups. Results are discussed in terms of the motivational constructs of A. Amsel and of R. K. Banks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of work values on job choice decisions.

Work values have been receiving increased research attention. E. C. Ravlin, B. M. Meglino, and their associates have recently conceptualized and provided measurement of work values. Although the effects of work values on job satisfaction, commitment, and individual decision making have been studied, work values have not been explicitly linked to job choice decisions. Using a sample of professional degree students and a policy-capturing design, the authors examined the influence of organizational work values on job choice in the context of job attributes that have been shown to affect this decision process. Organizational work values significantly affected job choice decisions. Individuals were more likely to choose jobs whose value content was similar to their own value orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of computer surveillance on perceptions of privacy and procedural justice.

Electronic workplace surveillance is raising concerns about privacy and fairness. Integrating research on electronic performance monitoring, procedural justice, and organizational privacy, the author proposes a framework for understanding reactions to technologies used to monitor and control employees. To test the framework's plausibility, temporary workers performed computer/Web-based tasks under varying levels of computer surveillance. Results indicated that monitoring job-relevant activities (relevance) and affording those who were monitored input into the process (participation) reduced invasion of privacy and enhanced procedural justice. Moreover, invasion of privacy fully mediated the effect of relevance and partially mediated the effect of participation on procedural justice. The findings are encouraging for integrating theory and research on procedural justice and organizational privacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ways to deter law violators: Effects of levels of threat and vicarious punishment on cheating.

Determined whether threat of severe, moderate, or mild sanctions and/or vicarious punishment would deter law violators from cheating, and whether law violators could be deterred as easily as law abiders. 123 undergraduates completed a sexual and a criminal behavior checklist (to differentiate law violators from abiders) and the Test Anxiety Scale. On the sexual and criminal behavior checklists, Ss indicated which specific offenses or behaviors they had committed, how many times they had committed them, and whether they had been apprehended. Ss then completed the School and College Ability Test under 7 conditions. Results show that (a) law violators cheated more than law abiders, (b) Ss cheated less if they witnessed a model apprehended for cheating, (c) law violators who were just severely threatened were the most dishonest, (d) law violators who saw a model apprehended and treated leniently cheated significantly more than law violators who saw a peer model caught and punished, and (e) high test-anxious Ss cheated more than low test-anxious Ss. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy and punishment.

An experiment to test the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with deficient passive avoidance learning under punishment. 75 High Pd and 75 Low Pd female undergraduates, equated for intelligence, learned a list of 10 nonsense syllables under 1 of 3 conditions of reinforcement: verbal reward, verbal punishment, and absence of comment by E. Punishment significantly retarded the learning of Low Pd Ss, but not that of High Pd Ss. No significant differences occurred under reward or neutral conditions. The hypothesis was considered confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Informed consent in capital sentencing evaluations: Targets and content.

Far-reaching implications are associated with psychological evaluation procedures in capital cases. The gravity and complexity of evaluations in a death penalty context call for an expanded perspective on informed consent disclosures from psychologists who perform capital sentencing assessments. A rationale is presented for making defense counsel the primary target for these expanded informed consent procedures. Informed consent obligations of prosecution-retained psychologists primarily involve issues of notice, with a proposal for proactive acknowledgement of limitations in the evaluation procedures. Issues for informed consent discussion between defense-contacted psychologists and defense counsel include attitudes, theoretical perspectives, and professional history of the psychologist; logistics of the evaluation; and parameters and procedures of the evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Justice and utility in the classroom: An attributional analysis of the goals of teachers' punishment and intervention strategies.

There are a multitude of possible reactions that teachers can have toward students who fall below academic standards. Some of these reactions have utilitarian goals, whereas others are punitive. In this study, the authors investigated these reactions, as well as the situations that determine when these different strategies are likely to be used. Both undergraduates playing the role of teachers (Study 1) and actual high school teachers (Study 2) used attributional information in much the same way to guide their choice of responses to academic failure. Controllable causes of failure give rise to punitive and retributive strategies, whereas lack of controllability elicits utilitarian responses. The stability of the cause moderates teachers' responses to failing students. These attributionally guided interventions are mediated in part by inferences of responsibility, emotional reactions of anger and sympathy, and beliefs in the efficacy of the intervention. The implications of this model are discussed in terms of student motivation and classroom performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploring the Effects of Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty on Capital Sentencing Verdicts.

Attitudes toward the death penalty are multifaceted and strongly held, but little research outside of the death-qualification literature has focused on the role that such attitudes and beliefs play in jurors' capital sentencing verdicts. A single item is insufficient to properly measure attitudes toward the death penalty; therefore, a new 15-item, 5-factor scale was constructed and validated. Use of this scale in 11 studies of capital jury decision making found a large effect of general support of the death penalty on sentencing verdicts as well as independent aggravating effects for the belief that the death penalty is a deterrent and the belief that a sentence of life without parole nonetheless allows parole. These effects generally were not completely mediated by, nor did attitudes moderate the effects of, aggravating and mitigating factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of procedural and distributive justice on reactions to a selection system.

Procedural and distributive justice were examined in an employee selection situation. Along procedural justice dimensions, job relatedness of and explanation offered for the selection procedures were manipulated. Distributive justice was examined through manipulation of a selection decision and collection of a priori hiring expectations. Dependent measures included fairness reactions, recommendation intentions, self-efficacy, and actual work performance. Undergraduates (n?=?260) were selected/rejected for paid employment. Job relatedness influenced performance and interacted with selection decision on perceptions of distributive fairness and self-efficacy. Explanations influenced recommendations of rejected applicants. Interactions between hiring expectations and selection decision were observed on perceived fairness and recommendation intentions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Public views of sentencing: The role of offender characteristics.

Conducted 2 experiments that manipulated the type of crime, criminal record of the offender, and 3 offender characteristics (age, employment status, and marital status) and observed the effect of each on sentences recommended by 64 adult volunteer Ss. In the 2nd experiment, 48 adult volunteer Ss were also explicitly asked whether these factors should be considered when sentencing offenders. None of the manipulated offender characteristics affected Ss' sentences. It is concluded that the public favors a sentencing model that excludes offender characteristics, even though Canadian case law has upheld their influence over the sentencing process. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of organizational signals on text-processing strategies.

Two hypotheses about how organizational signals influence text recal1 were tested: (a) that signals cause readers to change their text-processing strategies and (b) that signals facilitate readers' attempts to encode topic structure information but do not cause a shift in strategies. College students read and recalled a text that contained either no signals or contained headings, overviews, or summaries emphasizing the text's topic structure. At recall, students either received no cues or were reminded of the text's topics. Providing cues facilitated recall much more in the 3 conditions involving signaling than in the no-signals condition. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that organizational signals induce readers to change their text-processing strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological models of the justice motive: Antecedents of distributive and procedural justice.

Two psychological theories consider why people care about justice. The social-exchange-based resource model argues that people want to maximize the resources they obtain from social interactions, a goal that they believe is facilitated by following rules of distributive and procedural justice; the identity-based relational model suggests that people attempt to maintain high status within groups and use the justice of their experiences to evaluate their group status. Two studies on reactions to experiences with authorities (legal and managerial) examine the influence of these motives on (1) people's evaluations of the distributive and procedural justice of their experiences and (2) affective and behavioral reactions to those experiences. Results support a model in which relational issues dominate definitions of justice. Whereas distributive justice judgments are shaped by both resource and relational judgments, procedural justice judgments are shaped by relational concerns. The findings suggest two distinct justice motives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)