Neuropsychological and Psychological Aspects of Malingered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that is frequently encountered in litigation, and as such, there is an increased risk for poor effort on cognitive tests, symptom exaggeration, or frank malingering. These are particularly problematic for accurate diagnosis. This article is divided into four sections. First, we address why individuals malinger PTSD as well as the challenges in detecting an invalid PTSD symptom presentation. Second, we discuss issues of cognitive functioning in PTSD and then the prevalence of and common patterns of poor effort on neuropsychological testing among individuals feigning PTSD. Third, we discuss psychological functioning in PTSD and then the prevalence and patterns of functioning on psychological measures of malingering in this population. Finally, recommendations for detecting invalid PTSD symptom presentations are provided.     

Keeping Families Together: The Importance of Maintaining Mother–Child Contact for Incarcerated Women

Increases in the population of incarcerated women in the United States have resulted in the separation of growing numbers of mothers and children. The negative effects of dividing families have been noted for both the mothers and the children. The current research examines efforts at keeping imprisoned mothers and children connected through a visitation program. Through one-on-one interviews, the women prisoners share their perspectives about how their children are coping with the separation, their concerns for their children, their views of their roles as mothers, and their needs for after release. The women interviewed include participants in a specialized mother– child visitation program and a comparison group of mothers not in the program. The author suggests that keeping mothers and children connected may produce positive behavioral and emotional outcomes for both the mothers and their children that may reduce correctional costs and increase community safety.     

THE RELATIONSHIP OF ALCOHOL WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS TO SUGGESTIBILITY AND COMPLIANCE

People who are experiencing alcohol withdrawal are disadvantaged in terms of their ability to cope with leading questions and interrogative pressure (i.e. interrogative suggestibility). What had not been studied previously was the relationship of the severity of alcohol withdrawal symptoms with suggestibility and compliance. Suggestibility and compliance scores, obtained during the first week of hospital admission, were correlated with the severity of alcohol symptoms measured on a daily basis over a 7‐day period in a group of 393 patients attending treatment for alcohol abuse problems. Separate analyses were performed for the male and female patients. Significant gender differences emerged. Among males, alcohol withdrawal symptoms correlated positively with suggestibility and compliance across days. In contrast, among the females alcohol withdrawal symptoms were not significantly correlated with suggestibility and compliance, but were related to confabulations in memory recall. The findings suggest that in relation to psychological vulnerabilities during questioning, alcohol withdrawal symptoms are associated with different psychological factors in males and females. The findings have implications for the potential unreliability of information obtained from people interviewed during alcohol withdrawal.     

A field evaluation of the VIPER system: a new technique for eliciting eyewitness identification evidence

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to investigate the rate of claimed false confession during police questioning and identify variables that best discriminate between false confessors and non-false confessors. The participants were 24 627 high school students in seven countries in Europe. Out of 2726 who had been interrogated by the police as a suspect, 375 (13.8%) claimed to have made false confessions to the police. Logistic regression analyses showed that for both boys and girls, having attended substance abuse therapy, been attacked and bullied, and having committed a burglary, significantly discriminated between the false confessor and non-false confessor. In addition for boys, having been sexually abused by an adult outside the family was the single best predictor. The study shows the importance of history of victimization and substance misuse among adolescents in relation to giving a false confession to police during interrogation.     

Assessing Public Managers' Change-Oriented Behavior: Are Private Managers Caught in the Doldrums?

This article presents a concept and a measurement of managers' change-oriented behavior related to the initiation and implementation organizational change. It is argued that managers have an optimal potential for achieving organizational changes if they have the change-centered leadership style, are intuitive, recognize demands for change, and have power-motivated behavior. Public and private managers are significantly different in relation to change-oriented behavior based on data from 343 managers in two public organizations and one private. One result was unexpected: public managers are more change-oriented than managers in business organizations. As expected, there is no significant difference in change-oriented behavior among managers in public agencies. Possible explanations for these outcomes are presented.     

Reverberation and the Domestic Politics of Civil Nuclear Cooperation1

Abstract

This article analyzes Japanese foreign security policy and recent talk of “remilitarization.” It does so by assessing the changes that most closely parallel the analytical interests of three sets of major international relations theories: namely capability (realism), policy (liberalism), and normative context (constructivism). Japanese responses to recurring North Korean missile tests moreover provide a source for a contextually bound analysis of policy and self-image. The article confirms that the last two decades have witnessed a number of important changes in security aspects of Japanese foreign policy but concludes that these changes are not nearly so dramatic as to justify the bold language of many Japan specialists. Hence, it serves to moderate the scholarly tendency to overemphasize or overly dramatize the changes in Japanese security policy.     

Governance by EU emissions trading: resistance or innovation in the oil industry?

Studies of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) abound. Much is known about the economic incentives they contain to promote abatement and innovation, and studies are focusing on the short-term aggregate effects at sector and system levels. Less, however, is known about how the EU ETS affects companies, including their strategies, long-term innovation plans, and deployment of low-carbon solutions. This article presents an analytical framework of how companies are likely respond to regulation like the EU ETS, subsequently applied to companies in the oil industry, represented by the major multinationals ExxonMobil and Shell. The analysis finds that these companies had quite different initial responses to the ETS, whereas their long-term strategic responses to carbon pricing show signs of convergence.     

A Strange Drift to the Right: The Civic Historiography of Michael Sandel

Michael Sandel's Democracy's Discontent strives to contribute to the project of "democratic theory," which aims to bring people together across ideological differences. Sandel wants to revitalize citizenship by uniting religious conservatives and those committed to a more just political economy through an appeal to the American tradition of civic republicanism. However, his project is fundamentally incoherent. First, Sandel's narrative conflates the republican and religious aspects of the American founding, ignoring the fact that civic republican political theory actually developed in direct opposition to the ideal of a Christian polity. Second, his version of civic republicanism deviates from the historic tradition in a way that renders it much more conservative than it actually was and might still be. Third, his reading of American history consistently highlights conservative themes. Consequently, Sandel ultimately undercuts the progressive aspects of his own vision, detracting from rather than contributing to the transideological aspirations of "democratic theory."     

Data,Damn Lies,and Cannabis Policy: Reefer Madness and the Methodological Crimes of the New Prohibitionists

Critical Criminology - The rapid pace of cannabis legalization in North America has provoked a backlash that is predictable and discouraging. The New Prohibitionists, distinct but related to their...