Moral judgment development: The effects of education and occupation

Data from the Rest longitudinal study of moral judgment development were used to (i) consolidate past research into a single process model of moral judgment development, and (ii) assess the relative contributions of education and work to moral judgment development. Subjects were 102 individuals who were first interviewed in 1972–1974 and were followed up in 1983. A general model was specified which included moral judgment development in adolescence, dedication, educational attainment, occupational attainment, fulfilling career, and adult moral judgment development. The model was tested on the total sample and in a subsamples analysis that examined the unique pathways to moral development of subsamples which had either completed 2 years or more of college (higher education) or had completed less than 2 years of college (lower education). The general model confirmed that both education and occupation play important roles in the explanation of adult moral judgment development; the subsamples analysis suggested that work-related variables were the most important determinants of development in the lower education group and that education was the most important determinant of the higher education group.Dr. Boldizar died on March 28, 1992.     

What women's studies programs do that mainstreaming can't

This article draws some conclusions about the limitations of ‘mainstreaming’, based on a comparison between the author's experiences as director of a ‘mainstreaming’ project (in this case, on Ethnic Studies) and her experiences as coordinator of a Women's Studies program. Integrating the curriculum and building autonomous programs are fundamentally different projects.‘Mainstreaming’, while important, cannot represent the full scope, complexity, vitality, and contextuality of Women's Studies. Women's Studies has its own subject, gender, just as other disciplines have their central subjects. The new body of knowledge and theory about gender cannot be assimilated into ‘traditional’ departments and disciplines. Women's Studies is in the process of constituting itself a discipline; and knowing a discipline implies familiarity with the central issues of a given discourse, a knowledge of its central questions and controversies, an awareness of resonances among texts, and participation in the institutions and activities generating new knowledge and ideas. It is this sense of relationship among texts, ideas, empirical findings, theories, even the personalities and visions of individual human beings that cannot be fully transmitted in any mainstreaming project. Only in autonomous programs can Women's Studies continue its evolution toward disciplinary status and achieve its full intellectual and political promise.     

Criteria for the interpretation of cocaine levels in human biological samples and their relation to the cause of death

The determination that cocaine is directly responsible for the immediate cause of death should be considered only when there is a reasonably complete understanding of the circumstances or facts surrounding the death. Another, more obvious and immediate cause of death must be absent, or, at least cocaine must be shown to be a significant contributing factor in the chain of medical findings that lead directly to the immediate cause of death. Not all death investigation requires the sequential steps described in this paper, but these steps must be considered early on in the investigation whenever there is scene, investigational, medical or a historical basis to believe that cocaine is directly related to the cause of death. A relatively high profile death when cocaine is known to be involved, or a death involving unusual behavior on the part of the deceased with police involvement are examples where these considerations may well apply. Information needs to be obtained as soon as possible to have the highest chance of successfully documenting the toxicologic basis for the diagnosis. These facts would include, but would not necessarily be limited to, a scene investigation (whenever possible), a careful review of the investigative reports from all involved agencies, the initial core temperature of the body as well as that of the environment at the time of the collapse or death, the past medical history of the individual, and the results of a complete forensic autopsy and toxicologic studies. Knowledge of and an understanding of the current relevant forensic literature on this subject should be available to the reviewer prior to any interpretation of the significance of cocaine upon a specific death.     

Pretrial Publicity and Civil Cases: A Two-Way Street?

Published pretrial publicity (PTP) research has been conducted almost exclusively with criminal cases and has focused on PTP that is detrimental to the defense. The current research examined the effects of PTP in a civil case to determine if PTP can have a biasing effect against either the defendant or the plaintiff in civil litigation. In Experiment 1, participants exposed to PTP biased against the defendant were more likely to reach a liable verdict than participants who read a control article or PTP biased against the plaintiff. Experiment 2 demonstrated that a judicial admonition did not reduce the biasing effect of PTP about a civil defendant. However, participants given the admonition both before and after the trial evidence viewed the defendant as less culpable than participants given the admonition after the trial only or not at all. The implications for the legal system are discussed.     

The Differential Relations of Parent and Peer Attachment to Adolescent Adjustment

Whether or not close emotional relationships with parents and peers serve similar functions for adolescent adjustment is an issue of increasing interest. The present study was designed to examine the relations between parent and peer attachment and adolescent adjustment. Eighty-nine adolescents (M age = 16.1 years, SD = 1.8 years) completed self-report measures of parent and peer attachment, sympathy, academic efficacy, aggression, anxiety, and depression. Adolescents were divided into four groups on the basis of their parent and peer attachment scores: those high on both, those low on both, those high on peer but low on parent attachment, and those high on parent but low on peer attachment. Discriminant function analyses revealed that the groups differed only along one dimension, suggesting that parent and peer attachment served similar functions in terms of the adjustment indices measured. Adolescents high on both peer and parent attachment were the best adjusted (i.e., least aggressive and depressed, most sympathetic) and those low on both were the least well adjusted. Furthermore, those high on peer but low on parent attachment were better adjusted than those high on parent but low on peer attachment, suggesting that peer attachment may be relatively more influential on adolescent adjustment than parent attachment.