Myths and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Despite the fact that patients with mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are commonly encountered in clinical practice, there are numerous myths surrounding their diagnosis, assessment, and outcome. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the more common myths related to mild TBI including: (a) there is no Miserable Minority; (b) meta-analytic studies have proven that patients with mild TBI do not experience persistent deficits; (c) personality tests can reliably capture psychological problems in patients with a mild TBI; (d) findings from the sports concussion literature can be directly applied to clinical patients; and (e) in the absence of loss of consciousness, the diagnosis of a mild TBI is uncertain.     

Shulamit Almog,How Digital Technologies are Changing the Practice of Law

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

When Both Sides are Mistaken: Layperson and Legal Professionals’ Misconceptions of Canadian Suspects’ Legal Rights Upon Arrest

Canadian criminal suspects have notably limited access to legal counsel upon arrest compared to suspects in the U.S. Additionally, prior research has shown significant misunderstanding of police warnings informing suspects of their rights upon arrest. This paper presents three studies on Canadians’ comprehension of criminal suspects’ rights upon arrest, with a focus on the right to counsel. Study 1 (N=80) and Study 2 (N=377) examined Canadian layperson’s comprehension, knowledge, and perceptions of legal rights upon arrest. In turn, Study 3 (N=78) investigated Canadian legal professionals’ perceptions of laypersons’ knowledge of those rights. Results from these three studies indicated there is substantial confusion about the right to counsel for Canadian criminal suspects. These results also support previous research demonstrating problems with comprehension of Canadian police cautions. Taken together, the findings of the present research pose significant concern for an increased risk of false confessions from Canadian suspects who enter an interrogation with limited knowledge and understanding of their legal right to counsel.     

Analyzing the Dynamics and Morphology of Cast‐off Pattern at Different Speed Levels Using High‐speed Digital Video Imaging

During a bloodstain pattern analysis, one of the essential tasks is to distinguish between different kinds of applied forces as well as to estimate their level of intensity. In this study, high‐speed digital imaging has been used to analyze the formation of cast‐off patterns generated by a simulated backswing with a blood‐bearing object. For this purpose, 0.5 mL blood was applied evenly over the last 5 cm of a blade simulant. Bloodstains were created through the controlled acceleration of a backswing at different speed levels between 1.1 m/sec and 3.8 m/sec. The flight dynamics of blood droplets were captured with an Olympus^® i‐Speed 3 high‐speed digital camera with a Nikon^® AF Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 D lens and analyzed using the Olympus i‐Speed 3 Viewer software. The video analysis showed that, during the backswing, blood droplets would move toward the lower end of the knifepoint and would be tangentially thrown off. These droplets impacted on the horizontal surface according to the arc of the swing. An increase in velocity led to longer cast‐off patterns with distinct morphological characteristics. Under laboratory conditions, bloodstain pattern analysis allows certain conclusions about the intensity of a backswing and provides instructions on the position of the offender. However, due to the number of unknown variables at a crime scene, such interpretation of cast‐off patterns is extremely limited and should be performed with extreme caution.     

Detection of drug transport using X-ray techniques

The purpose of the paper was to show X-ray techniques used to discover drugs transported inside the body (body packers), on the body surface, in the garments or luggage, in goods and vehicles. The analysis was based on the X-ray findings of 141 body packers caught in Hamburg between 1989 and 2004 as well as individual cases from personal collections. The use of X-rays for border and security checks is described, different technical concepts are demonstrated and examples are given, e. g. transmission (fluoroscopic) and backscatter imaging of humans, luggage, goods, and vehicles as well as X-ray spectroscopy. The results showed that body packers produce characteristic findings in native X-ray photographs, which are even more pronounced in CT scans and after application of contrast media. Backscatter imaging allows the investigation of the body surface and the clothing. Transmission and backscatter imaging is suitable for checking humans, goods, passenger cars, trucks and containers. With the help of X-ray spectroscopy suspicious substances can be identified without opening the packaging material. According to present findings, the radiation dose applied seems low compared with exposure to environmental radiation and cosmic radiation during flights. The pictures obtained with the backscatter technique show the person checked in the nude, which raises the question of privacy versus the right of the state to carry out inspections and controls.     

Men and Women’s Attachment and Contact Patterns with Parents During the First Year of College

Attending a university involves change and transition and an opportunity to study older adolescents’ attachment. The current study explored potential gender differences in both older adolescents’ need-and nonneed-based interactions with parents and their perceptions of attachment quality. Results indicated that although females did not initiate significantly more need-based contact with parents than males, they received significantly more need-based contact than males that was initiated by their parents. On the other hand, females both initiated and received nonneed-based contact with parents more than males. Consistent with attachment theory, parent–child need- and nonneed-based interactions were related to one’s perceived quality of attachment. Results indicated that adolescent attachment involves both need- and nonneed-based parent–adolescent interactions. The pattern of findings suggests that adolescent males and females may show attachment in different ways.This research is based on the first author’s master’s thesis at American University under the supervision of the second author.Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC. Received MA in Psychology from American University, Washington, DC. Research interests lie within developmental and clinical psychology, parent–adolescent interactions, and child psychopathology.Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC. Received PhD in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Research interests include gender issues and developmental and clinical psychology.     

Sixth Graders’ Conflict Resolution in Role Plays with a Peer,Parent, and Teacher

This study used conflict resolution role play vignettes and self-report surveys of 450 New York City 6th graders to examine associations between adolescents’ conflict resolution efficacy and social skills. Vignettes covered 3 social contexts, conflict with a peer (disagreement over activities), with a parent (raise in allowance), and with a teacher (low grade on report). Effective and ineffective strategies for resolving these conflicts were coded from the videotaped interactions. Adolescents were more often effective in resolving conflict with peers than with parents (χ²(1) = 7.10, p < .01). Strong communication skills cut across interpersonal context as associated with effective resolution. Assertiveness and absence of aggression were associated with effective conflict resolution in vignettes with peers. Assertiveness was also associated with effective conflict resolution in vignettes with parents, however nervousness was unexpectedly found to facilitate conflict resolution in vignettes with parents. Only skills observed within a particular context were associated with effective resolution in that context; self-report skills and cross-context observed skills were not associated with efficacy. Implications for implementation and evaluation of social skills curricula and conflict resolution process are discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meetings of the Society for Research on Adolescence, New Orleans, LA, April 2002Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2004. Research interests include adolescent social competence and youth development programs.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Pennsylvania State University in 1991. Research interests include the psychosocial correlates of puberty, stress reactivity, and health compromising behaviors and adjustment.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2002. Research interests include social competence, prevention research, and women’s health.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2002. Research interests include social competence, prevention research, and women’s health.Received Ph.D. in 1975 from University of Pennsylvania in Human Learning and Development. Research focus centers around designing and evaluating interventions aimed at enhancing the wellbeing of children living in poverty and associated conditions. Conducts research on transitional periods during childhood and adolescence, focusing on school, family and biological transitions in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Specific interests are in the factors that contribute to positive and negative outcomes, and changes inwell-being over these years.Received Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University in 1977. Research interests include tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention, violence prevention, AIDS risk reduction among adolescents, health promotion and disease prevention, smoking cessation.     

Differenzierte Mitgliedschaft und die EU‐Osterweiterung: Das Beispiel der Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit

Die Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkungen der Vergabe eingeschränkter Mitgliedschaftsrechte auf den Verlauf und die Ergebnisse der EU‐Osterweiterung. Die Studie zeigt auf, dass die EU‐Mitgliedstaaten Übergangsfristen für die Liberalisierung der Arbeitsmärkte durchsetzten, um die zu erwartenden Erweiterungsgewinne zugunsten der, von der Freizügigkeit negativ betroffenen Altmitglieder ‐ Deutschland, Österreich und Italien ‐ umzuverteilen und so ein Scheitern der Aufnahmeverhandlungen zu verhindern. Die Diskussionen der EU‐Mitglieder über die Einführung einer eingeschränkten Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit für die Neumitglieder und ein Überblick über andere Verhandlungskapitel legen nahe, dass die Verteilung differenzierter Mitgliedschaftsrechte an neue Mitglieder eine bedeutsame Handlungsalternative insbesondere zur Nichtmitgliedschaft darstellt.     

Studying Pretrial Publicity Effects: New Methods for Improving Ecological Validity and Testing External Validity

Although research examining the effects of pretrial publicity (PTP) on individuals' appraisals of a defendant and verdict decision making generally has been found to be internally valid, the external validity has been questioned by some social scientists as well as lawyers and judges. It is often proposed that the verisimilitude (or ecological validity) of the research should be increased in the service of increasing external validity; however, increasing verisimilitude can be costly in terms of both time and money. It is proposed that the Internet is a viable means of conducting PTP research that allows high verisimilitude without high costs. This is demonstrated with a study in which we used the Internet to examine PTP effects in an actual trial as it was taking place. Successful use of the Internet to conduct experimental research in other areas of psychology and law is discussed, as well as the importance of future research examining whether independent variables interact with methods in ways that undermine the generalizability of research findings.