Detecting Feigned PTSD Using the Personality Assessment Inventory

Research generally supports the use of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey 1991) to detect feigned PTSD, although this support has been somewhat mixed. There is also evidence that coaching individuals on the presence of PAI validity indicators may not affect their ability to avoid detection as feigners (Bagby et al. in Journal of Personality Assessment 78:69–86, 2002), although this question has not been specifically addressed with regard to PTSD. Additionally, a new PAI validity indicator, the Negative Distortion Scale (NDS), was developed that may have utility in detecting feigned PTSD, but this has not been tested. The purpose of this study was to further test the operating characteristics of the PAI validity indicators to detect feigned PTSD among naïve and coached respondents and to examine the newly developed NDS for this purpose. Individuals with genuine PTSD were compared to individuals instructed to feign PTSD on PAI validity indicators. Results suggest that: (a) coaching had minimal influence on the ability of the PAI to detect feigned PTSD, (b) the PAI validity indicators all significantly differentiated genuine from feigned PTSD, and (c) the NIM and NDS indicators were particularly effective for detecting feigned PTSD.     

TOPICAL ISSUES IN CROSS BORDER DISCOVERY： RECONCILING PERSONAL DATA REGULATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL GUIDELINES

This article will consider the following questions： What is the current state of the European data privacy and transfer regime？ What are the challenges the regime is facing and what are the modifications being considered to address them？ What role can the Sedona Conference play in reconciling personal data regulations and cross border discovery？ We will explore the following critical issues： 1. The position taken by the European Commission （EC） in its proposed General Data Protection Regulation （2012） that the current regime, as embodied in the European Union （EU） Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, has not fully achieved the harmonization of its member state＇s legal systems that was originally envisioned; 2. How the regime can adapt to the challenges and be driven by dynamic legal, technological and economic environments？ The paper will conclude by examining key provisions of the EC＇s proposed regulation within the context of the Sedona Conference＇s International Principles and offer recommendations on implementation.     

Measuring the autonomous influence of an international bureaucracy: the Division for Sustainable Development

International bureaucracies influence global governance processes as independent agents. Biermann and Siebenhüner (Managers of global change: the influence of international environmental bureaucracies. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2009) have developed an analytical framework to measure and explain the degree of autonomous influence of bureaucracies. We test the validity of the causal claims in the framework by applying it to the Division for Sustainable Development, the bureaucracy that services the Commission on Sustainable Development and compare the results with existing applications of the framework to the United Nations Environmental Program and the Climate Secretariat (UNFCCC). The test shows that the framework is comprehensive and captures the main elements of bureaucratic influence. The structure of the explanatory variables, however, as well as some causal claims, needs to be improved. For instance, the framework includes too many explanatory variables, and interplay between the variables is not taken into account. The article suggests five concrete measures to improve the framework by, for example, creating protocols, collapsing variables, and introduce weightings to the variables.     

Positive Effects in Detecting Lies from Training to Recognize Behavioral Anomalies

We examined whether training in both the verbal and nonverbal indicators of truth telling and lying would have positive effects on Law Enforcement Officers’ (LEOs) ability to evaluate truths from lies. College course-level training on empirically validated verbal and nonverbal indicators of truth telling and lying was provided to mid- to advanced-career level LEOs, whose accuracy in detecting lies from truths was assessed pre- and post-training using truthful and deceptive videos of mock crimes and opinions. A marginally significant truth bias existed at pre-test; training, however, resulted in a significant improvement in accuracy rates for both truth and lie videos, and the truth bias that existed at pre-test was eliminated. Additional analyses indicated that accuracy rates improved for videos of mock crimes but not for opinions. These findings add to a small but growing literature that indicates that training on validated verbal and nonverbal indicators of truth telling and lying has positive benefits.     

Differentiation as Affirmative Action: Transforming or Reinforcing Structural Inequality at the UNFCCC?

ABSTRACT

Structural inequality is at the heart of the struggle to prevent dangerous climate change. This makes the global climate regime a particularly interesting case, when it comes to conceptualising and assessing the role of international institutions as sites for the reproduction and transformation of macro-level inequalities that structure the international system. This article uses these interlinkages to, first, assess, in how far the debates, conflicts and doubts regarding effectiveness and justifications of affirmative action at the domestic level, introduced as a reaction to domestic structural inequality, can teach us something about the actual potential of and the obstacles to the transformation of structural inequalities through differentiation internationally. Second, it assesses whether and how institutional mechanisms of categorisation and (re-)distribution within the UNFCCC have led and are likely to lead in the future to a reinforcement or a transformation of global structural inequalities.     

Managing children's and adolescents' medical complaints amid parent conflict: Strategies and tools for professionals

Children and adolescents who are having difficulty coping with stress often present with complaints of physical discomfort. Effective treatment approaches exist for many of these issues. Among high-conflict parents, however, children's medical issues can become another canvas for conflict, with parents focused more on blaming one another for the child's distress than on options for assisting the child. Professionals can be drawn into the conflict to such a degree that they overlook essential steps for addressing and managing these issues. The authors present a research-informed model for managing medical and psychophysiological issues amid parental conflict.     

Are Female Offenders Underreported Compared to Male Offenders? A German-Greek Comparison of Crime Reporting,Rating of Offence Seriousness and Personal Experiences of Victimisation

The difference in official crime statistics between women and men is a constant fact in criminology, but has yet to be explained in a satisfactory way. There are few studies addressing the issue of why this gender gap is larger in registered crime than it is in self-report studies. The study at hand comprises a survey among Greek and German students to examine whether this gap could be attributed to a gender-specific reporting of crime. Participants’ self-reported experiences of victimisation and their rating of the seriousness of offences depicted in case vignettes were used to gain insight into varying tendencies to report a crime depending on the offender’s gender. The act of reporting a crime did not vary gender-specifically.     

An investigation into the risk perceptions held by maximum security correctional officers

Maximum security correctional officers play a crucial role in the establishment of order within their respective institutions of employment, yet they are also exposed to numerous occupational dangers that can threaten their general welfare. When they perceive high levels of injurious risk from workplace hazards, this cannot only jeopardize their job performance but lead to a poorly managed prison institution. Currently though, few studies have explored correctional officer perceptions of workplace dangers and risks, and even fewer have explored the factors that influence officer perceived risk of injury. Questionnaire data from a statewide population of maximum security correctional officers (N?=?649) were gathered in order to examine officer perceived risk of injury from workplace dangers, and the antecedents to this judgment. Results illustrated how officers perceived a high degree of injurious risk from their work, and that their risk perceptions were largely a product of psychological features of dangers. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.