Self-deception and other-deception among admissions to a maximum security hospital and a medium secure unit

Abstract

Other-deception and self-deception are important variables to consider when conducting a forensic psychological evaluation. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of setting on other-deception and self-deception scores. It was hypothesised that patients at a maximum security hospital (Broadmoor) would score lower on an other-deception questionnaire than similar patients at a medium secure unit (Denis Hill Unit). All the patients completed the other-deception (ODQ) and self-deception (SDQ) questionnaires of Sackeim and Gur (1979) on admission to the two security hospitals. The Broadmoor patients (N = 46) obtained significantly lower ODQ score than the Denis Hill Unit (N = 52) patients, after controlling for differences in ethnic background and diagnosis among the two populations. No significant difference in setting was found for the SDQ score. The ODQ and SDQ scores were significantly associated with the type of diagnosis and the ethnic background of the patient, with patients diagnosed as mentally ill scoring higher than those with a diagnosis of personality disorder, and ethnic minority patients scoring higher than Caucasian patients.     

Institutionalised Co-production: Unorthodox Public Service Delivery in Challenging Environments

In developing countries in particular, services are often delivered through unorthodox organisational arrangements that cannot simply be dismissed as relics of ‘traditional’ institutions, or as incomplete modern organisations. Some have emerged recently, and represent institutional adaptations to specific political and logistical circumstances. We need to expand the range of organisational categories that are considered worthy of study and develop a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of unorthodox arrangements. The concept of institutionalised co-production provides a useful point of entry. Institutionalised co-production is defined as: the provision of public services (broadly defined, to include regulation) through a regular long-term relationship between state agencies and organised groups of citizens, where both make substantial resource contributions. We explain some varieties of institutionalised co-production arrangements; explore why they appear to be relatively so widespread in poor countries; and relate the concept to broader ideas about public organisation.     

The Japanese worker

Abstract

Robert Cole points out in his introduction to Japanese Blue Collar that there are two dominant but conflicting views of the social relations of production in the Japanese economy, views which Cole conveniently sums up under the rubrics of “uniqueness” and “convergence.”     

Science governance and the politics of proper talk: governmental bioethics as a new technology of reflexive government

Abstract

The article examines the emergence of governmental bioethics in Great Britain, France and Germany, i.e. bodies, discourses and procedures meant to guide policy-making in terms of ethical considerations. It argues that governmental bioethics, marked by openness, transparency and participation, can be understood as a form of reflexive government in the realm of science governance. It grew out of the problematization of older forms of science governance based on ideas of effectiveness, scientific expertise and system stability, and operates through structuring and managing proper talk rather than intervening in processes of techno-scientific development. Yet, rather than challenging the commitment to techno-scientific ‘progress’, it stabilizes it through mechanisms of inclusion, involvement and mobilization: within the framework of proper ethical talk, participation can be employed to pursue rather than oppose system stability.     

Thirty-seven degrees frigid: US-chilean relations and the spectre of polar arrivistes, 1950–59

After its 1948 proposal to internationalize Antarctica had been rejected, the United States accepted the Chilean Escudero Plan as a necessiry for avoiding further political disputes among the seven nations that had balked at the proposal's call to renounce their sovereign rights. US and Chilean officials proceeded to discuss revisions that might enhance the Escudero Plan's acceptabiliry to the other nations, all of which shared the goal of excluding the Soviet Union. Before there had been any substantial progress, the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year legitimated the USSRs presence in the far south, and already tense US-Chilean relations entered a phase of heightened apprehensiveness. This article explores the diplomatic and contextual nuances of this bilateral interaction that proved central in bringing the Antarctic Treary of 1959 to fruition.