Juvenile waiver to adult criminal courts: Prototypes for dangerousness, sophistication–maturity, and amenability to treatment.

Psychological assessment of juveniles for waiver to adult criminal courts requires systematic evaluation of dangerousness, sophistication–maturity, and amenability to treatment. Despite their importance to the evaluation of juveniles, little is known about the criteria that constitute these 3 constructs. This study clarifies the constructs of dangerousness, sophistication–maturity, and amenability to treatment that typically guide juvenile transfers. Psychologists (n?=?244) from the Clinical Child Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association rated the prototypicality of each construct. Factor analyses of the domains for each of the 3 constructs are reviewed. In addition, forensic diplomates from the American Board of Professional Psychology (n?=?75) provided prototypical ratings of juveniles whom they evaluated and who were subsequently transferred to adult court. Results indicate that these youth were judged as dangerous, criminally sophisticated, and difficult to treat. The interpretation of the results may facilitate evaluations by clinical child and forensic psychologists on juvenile waivers and help to shape policy on this issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal analysis of anxiety and depressive symptoms.

The authors modeled depressive and anxiety symptom data from 1,391 participants in a longitudinal study of middle-aged and older Swedish twins (M age?=?60.9 years, SD?=?13.3). Although anxiety and depression were highly correlated, a model with distinct Anxiety and Depression factors fit the data better than models with Positive and Negative Affect factors or a single Mental Health factor. Lack of well-being was associated with anxiety rather than depression. Over two 3-year intervals, anxiety symptoms led to depressive symptoms, but the relationship was not reciprocal. Anxiety symptoms were more stable than depression. These findings provide additional support for the idea that anxiety symptoms may reflect a personality trait such as neuroticism more than do depressive symptoms and suggest that low positive affect may not be as specific to depression among older adults as in younger people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of goal-setting and feedback on memory performance and beliefs among older and younger adults.

This research examined the impact of goal-setting conditions on memory beliefs and performance among older and younger adults. After baseline recall and assessment of beliefs, participants were assigned to goal-setting, goals plus feedback, or control. Then, additional recall trials were followed by repeated memory beliefs assessments. For both younger and older adults, performance, motivation, and self-efficacy were affected positively by goal-setting. The impact of goals plus feedback was mixed and varied as a function of age and dependent measure. Success rates for reaching memory goals, which were low for the older adults, may have been a factor in these results. Adults' self-set recall goals were predicted initially by baseline performance and self-efficacy. On the final trial, goals were predicted by last trial performance, self-efficacy, and control beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Forms of Intersubjectivity in Infant Research and Adult Attachment.

Reviews the book, Forms of Intersubjectivity in Infant Research and Adult Attachment by Beatrice Beebe, Steven Knoblauch, Judith Rustin, and Dorienne Sorter (2005). In this book, the authors use their 10 years of collaborative work to produce an in-depth and well-constructed discussion of verbal and nonverbal forms of intersubjectivity as observed in the treatment setting and as evidenced by data generated from more mainstream child development studies. They move beyond the lack of integration between these related though often dramatically disconnected disciplines and build on infant researchers' understanding of "prereflective" caregiver-child interactions to offer a new theory of intersubjectivity that enhances our understanding of the clinical interaction with adult patients. This book is not for those therapists who are interested in learning well-specified, new interventions to use in their psychotherapy practice. It is also not suggested for those clinicians who do not have some background in psychoanalytic theory and practice. It is, however, recommended for those clinicians who work psychodynamically and are interested in developing their awareness of the nonverbal aspects of treatment and the co-construction of the therapeutic encounter. This book would also be useful to those in the field of psychotherapy research as it poses new questions about the nature of the therapeutic process and suggests the importance of examining the role that implicit, nonverbal interactions play in psychotherapy. Beebe, Knoblauch, Rustin, and Sorter's book is well constructed, persuasively argued, and highly recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibitory deficits in older adults: List-method directed forgetting revisited.

In list-method directed forgetting, participants are cued to intentionally forget a previously studied list while remembering a subsequently presented 2nd list. Results from prior research are inconclusive on whether older adults show deficits in this type of task. In 3 experiments, the authors reexamined the issue and compared younger and older adults' responsiveness to the forget cue. Across the experiments, the forget cue was varied within and between participants, the 2 lists were unrelated and related to each other, and recall of the lists was required simultaneously and successively. In none of the 3 experiments did any age-related difference in directed forgetting performance emerge. List-method directed forgetting is assumed to reflect retrieval inhibition. The present results thus challenge the proposal of a general inhibitory deficit in older adults' memory performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, practice, and perceptual tasks: A diffusion model analysis.

Practice effects were examined in a masked letter discrimination task and a masked brightness discrimination task for college-age and 60- to 75-year-old subjects. The diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) was fit to the response time and accuracy data and used to extract estimates of components of processing from the data. Relative to young subjects, the older subjects began the experiments with slower and less accurate performance; however, across sessions their accuracy improved because the quality of the information on which their decisions were based improved, and this, along with reduced decision criteria, led to shorter response times. For the brightness, but not the letter, discrimination task, the older subjects' performance matched that of the younger group by the end of 4 sessions, except that their nondecision components of processing were slightly slower. These analyses illustrate how a well-specified model can provide a unified view of multiple aspects of data that are often interpreted separately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Counseling adults in transition: Linking practice with theory.

Reviews the book, Counseling adults in transition: Linking practice with theory by Nancy K. Schlossberg (1984). Rehabilitation psychologists can profit from this book because of its concise contents, its intensive examination of life's transitions, its gerontological perspectives, its insistent "linking" of otherwise linear thinking, and its pervasive implications for work with rehabilitation clients. This statement of the book's value for our field is given to start with, since its title might suggest that it is relevant only to rehabilitation counseling. Schlossberg ably discusses theories and practices of interest to rehabilitation psychologists and reviews research with pertinent heuristic possibilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Profile of Psychologists' Views of Critical Risk Factors for Completed Suicide in Older Adults.

The ability to accurately and reliably predict whether an older adult will commit suicide has eluded clinicians and researchers. A random national sample of psychologists who work with older adults was surveyed regarding their perception of 36 risk factors for completed suicide and indirect self-destructive behavior in older adults. This study produced a profile of psychologists' assessment and treatment practices when working with suicidal older adults. Determining what psychologists consider to be the most salient risk factors for completed suicide is important in identifying a minimum standard that clinicians should follow when assessing older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Geriatric Mental Health Policy: Impact on Service Delivery and Directions for Effecting Change.

The treatment of mental health problems in older adults has advanced considerably over the past several decades. Nevertheless, the mental health needs of the nation's elderly population remain substantially unmet. This article identifies the significant but previously neglected role of regulatory policies and administrative practices in limiting the use and provision of geriatric mental health services. Such factors are the least recognized and understood by psychologists, although they are the very factors on which psychologists can have the most potential influence. This article subsequently identifies salient legislative proposals and regulatory developments, while addressing the importance of advocacy on agenda setting and policy change. The final section provides specific proposals and mechanisms at micro and macro levels for improving the geropsychology service system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concordance in Attachment States of Mind and Styles With Respect to Fathers and Mothers.

It is believed that by adulthood, independent attachments to the mother and the father coalesce into a single state of mind with respect to attachment. If true, states of mind with respect to mothers and fathers should be concordant. Fifty-six young adults were administered two versions of the Adult Attachment Interview, each of which asked about their relationship with one parent. State of mind with respect to the father was significantly related to state of mind with respect to the mother, as were attachment styles regarding the two parents. Perceptions of attachment styles were not very related to corresponding states of mind but were related to inferred loving from a parent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)