Was Lars sexually assaulted? A study in the reliability of witnesses and of experts.

A 5-year-old boy reported that he had been sexually assaulted by a neighborhood window cleaner. 2 court-appointed "experts" using divergent methods of approach came up with divergent findings. Detailed interviews and the case history are presented in this article and lead to a resolution of the disagreement and a reconstruction of the incident with the conclusion that Lars was not sexually assaulted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychologist as an instrument of prediction.

This selection system is meant to be a synthesis of a statistical and a clinical approach. Psychologists administered group and individual tests to applicants for copilot courses in the Scandinavian Airlines System. "During the years 1951-56 a total of 780 applicants were examined." Remaining and dismissed pilots were compared and the resulting data served as the criteria of the validity of the selection system. The psychologists discussed their evaluations until they agreed on ratings. The results suggest that in this instance clinical prediction was better than statistical. "There is no magic in the fact that psychologists, when given this leading role, can be more effective as predictors than batteries of tests." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)