Mental sets in conduct problem youth with psychopathic features: Entity versus incremental theories of intelligence

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of a motivational intervention on conduct problem youth with psychopathic features. Specifically, the current study examined conduct problem youths' mental set (or theory) regarding intelligence (entity vs. incremental) upon task performance. We assessed 36 juvenile offenders with psychopathic features and tested whether providing them with two different messages regarding intelligence would affect their functioning on a task related to academic performance. The study employed a MANOVA design with two motivational conditions and three outcomes including fluency, flexibility, and originality. Results showed that youth with psychopathic features who were given a message that intelligence grows over time, were more fluent and flexible than youth who were informed that intelligence is static. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of originality. The implications of these findings are discussed including the possible benefits of interventions for adolescent offenders with conduct problems and psychopathic features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

""Blood on the UN's Hands'? Assigning Duties and Apportioning Blame to an Intergovernmental Organisation

The United Nations is frequently the object of blame for "failing' ' to act in response to what are deemed to be ethical imperatives. Implicit in such condemnations is an understanding of the United Nations as a body that has moral duties, and possesses the various capacities for deliberating and acting that would make this a reasonable conception. Yet this portrayal of the United Nations as a moral agent is one that should only be invoked with great care, and some qualification. By constructing a model of "institutional moral agency'', and examining whether the United Nations meets its criteria, this article aims to offer a preliminary account of the internal features, and enabling conditions that would allow the United Nations to bear the related burdens of duty and blame in international politics. It also suggests who—or what— might bear these burdens when the United Nations is incapable of acting.     

Population data of four X-chromosome markers in Tuscany, and their use in a deficiency paternity case

Four X-chromosome markers (DXS101, HPRTB, DXS8377, and STRX-1) were typed in a population sample from Tuscany, Italy, using a single amplification reaction. Resolution of a deficiency paternity case involving two women (either they were half-sisters or non-relatives) was made possible by typing these marker in addition to 16 conventional autosomal markers.     

Perception of infant cries in adolescent and adult mothers

Deficits in parenting behavior in adolescent mothers could be due to the adolescent mother's perception of her infant's behavior. The aim of this study was to compare how adolescent and adult mothers perceive the crying behavior of their newborns. The 19 adolescent and 18 adult mothers listened to a tape recording of their infants' crying and rated the characteristics of the cry on 12 seven-point scales. The sample included newborns with normal growth and newborns with compromised growth. Acoustic characteristics of the cries were extracted by computer. Adult mothers rated the cries of their infants with compromised growth toward the negative end of the scales. By contrast, adolescent mothers rated the cries of their infants with compromised growth toward the positive end of the scales. Acoustic analysis showed that the cries of the infants with compromised growth were higher pitched and more variable than the cries of infants with normal growth. Correlations between the cry ratings and the acoustic analysis showed that for adult mothers, higher pitched and more variable cries were associated with negative ratings. For adolescent mothers, higher pitched and more variable cries were associated with more positive ratings. The findings suggest that adolescent mothers differ in the perception of their infant's behavior, which may have implications for later parenting behavior.This research was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation.Received Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Main Research interests are infant crying, determinants of neontal and infant development, assessment of preterm and at-risk infants.Received Ph.D. from Harvard University. Main research interests are sociocultural aspects of development, teenage pregnancy, infant temperament, and psychophysiology.Main research interests have been in maternal and infant interactions of high risk infants.     

Measuring Attitudes toward the United States Supreme Court

It is conventional in research on the legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court to rely on a survey question asking about confidence in the leaders of the Court to indicate something about the esteem with which that institution is regarded by the American people. The purpose of this article is to investigate the validity of this measure. Based on a nationally representative survey conducted in 2001, we compare confidence with several different measures of Court legitimacy. Our findings indicate that the confidence replies seem to reflect both short-term and long-term judgments about the Court, with the greater influence coming from satisfaction with how the Court is performing at the moment. We suggest a new set of indicators for measuring the legitimacy of the Court and offer some evidence on the structure of the variance in these items.     

Lay theories of suicide among Austrian psychology undergraduates

Lester and Bean's (1992) Attribution of Causes to Suicide Scale gauges lay theories of suicide including intrapsychic problems, interpersonal conflicts, and societal forces as causes. Results obtained with its German form (n=165 Austrian psychology undergraduates) showed no sex differences and no social-desirability effects. Intriguingly, all three subscales were moderately intercorrelated, thereby indicating respondents' general agreement (or disagreement) with all three theories. Thus, the critical dimension of lay theories of suicide appears to be the belief that suicide has definite causes (regardless of type) versus that it is without causes (unpredictable). In addition, religiosity was positively associated (and overall knowledge about suicide negatively associated) with belief in intrapsychic causes, whereas liberal political views were negatively associated with belief in interpersonal causes.