Psychological Injury and Law: Assumptions and Foundations, Controversies and Myths, Needed Directions

Psychological injury and law is a fast-developing field that is constructing a set of foundational assumptions and core knowledge guiding its science and practice. At the same time, it is marked by controversies, functions in an adversarial legal system and related systems, and is bedeviled by myths. I present a list of 25 basic assumptions, core knowledge, controversies, myths, and needed directions. With well-designed conceptualization and research on critical issues, the assumptions and core knowledge base in the field of psychological injury and law can continue to improve in quality, reducing its controversies and myths, and moderating the impact of the adversarial nature of the legal system and related systems in which it must function.     

Psychological Injury and Law: An Integrative Model

This article briefly reviews the literature on three areas of psychological injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury, preparatory to presentation of an integrated biopsychosocial and forensic model of multifactorial causality. The model is the first in the field to (a) cover in one model the three types of psychological injury, (b) while including a full range of causality factors relevant to forensic psychology (such as pre-event, event-, post-event, and unrelated factors), and (c) while addressing the relevance of biopsychological and stress as a cohering factors in all conditions. (d) The model emphasizes the importance of individual differences, for example, in causality of symptom presentation. (e) The model acknowledges that in individual evaluations, psychologists need to consider threats to validity, response biases, and possible malingering, and verify whether pre-event factors fully explain post-event presentation.     

Policy representation of constituency interests

This paper examines two aspects of congressional representation: the responsiveness of House candidates to constituency opinion and the effect of candidate positions on House election outcomes. For both Democratic- and Republican-held seats, constituency liberalism (as measured by the constituency's vote for McGovern in 1972) is strongly related to the liberalism of incumbent candidates but less so to the liberalism of challengers. House election outcomes are visibly influenced by the positions of incumbent candidates but not those of nonincumbent candidates. The paper argues that elections contribute significantly to achieving congressional representation. Candidate positions are measured from a 1974 CBS survey of all major House candidates.     

Changing approaches to corrections

A new training program was developed for correctional officers and other new employees. The training was designed to focus on a positive philosophy toward rehabilitation rather than emphasizing techniques for managing inmates. Attitude questionnaires were developed to test attitudes on treatment and security. The questionnaire was administered before and after the training to determine changes in attitude. The trainees' attitudes were compared to those of college students who had completed an internship. There was a significant difference in the attitudes of employees before training and after training. There was also a significant difference in attitudes of interns and employees before training but not after the employees had been trained.