IDEOLOGY AND POLICY RESEARCH: THE CASE OF MURRAY'S LOSING GROUND

Ideology and policy research are intertwined in many ways; an example is Murray's Losing Ground which uses “science” to justify racial, sexual, and class discrimination. Murray is utterly faithful to the neoconservative version of how liberalism went wrong in the 1960s. He says an intellectual elite shifted the blame for poverty, crime and low achievement to “the system” destroying individual responsibility. But his argument is not supported by evidence. Data are bent tofit foregone conclusions. He argues that more people are becoming dependent on government support, but his method of counting who receives assistance is a fiction. Nevertheless his argument has wide appeal among Americans. Why? His argument touches the self-interested Social Darwinist in almost all of us.     

Focus of attention and locus of control as moderators of fraternal justice effects

The influence of a colleague's performance outcomes on individual's own subsequent performance was investigated. Internal and external locus of control subjects were given information about another person's outcome which indicated two things about organizational standards: how easy or difficult they were to meet and how stringently they were applied. An attentional focus manipulation was employed to influence how subjects used this information. Half of the subjects received a group-focus manipulation and the other half a self-focus one. We proposed that perceived difficulty of standards and stringency of application would interact with attentional focus and subject locus of control to alter subject's own subsequent performances. This expectation was supported by the data. Theoretical and applied implications of this result are discussed.     

Computer-Aided Instruction in Law: Theories, Techniques, and Trepidations

Legal education is only beginning to make use of the technological capabilities of computers as a medium for instructional design. In this article the authors show the applicability of computer-assisted instruction to law through programmed instructional techniques. They trace the two decades of development of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in law, the use and misuse of the computer's capabilities, the impact of CAI on law student attitudes and performance, and the positive student endorsement. They carefully analyze the computer's capacity for use in memory drills, tutorial sessions, and simulation exercises. They do not offer an unrestricted endorsement of the computer's capabilities but hope for the continuing development of CAI in the legal education process.     

Incentives and beneficence

Whether an action is beneficent may depend on its effect on incentives for future behavior of the beneficiary. This strategic consideration makes our moral account of beneficence far more complex than most discussions suggest. Its effect on utilitarian and Kantian moral theories is discussed. In general, strategic incentive considerations recommend institutional rather than individual resolution of many problems, so that moral theory must in part be political and institutional.     

Medical examiner/coroner records: uses and limitations in occupational injury epidemiologic research

Epidemiologic research often relies on existing data, collected for nonepidemiologic reasons, to support studies. Data are obtained from hospital records, police reports, labor reports, death certificates, or other sources. Medical examiner/coroner records are, however, not often used in epidemiologic studies. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Division of Safety Research has begun using these records in its research program on work-related trauma. Because medical examiners and coroners have the legal authority and responsibility to investigate all externally caused deaths, these records can be used in surveillance of these deaths. Another use of these records is to validate cases identified by other case ascertainment methods, such as death certificates. Using medical examiner/coroner records also allows rapid identification of work-related deaths without waiting several years for mortality data from state offices of vital statistics. Finally, the records are an invaluable data source since they contain detailed information on the nature of the injury, external cause of death, and results of toxicologic testing, which is often not available from other sources. This paper illustrates some of the ways that medical examiner/coroner records are a valuable source of information for epidemiologic studies and makes recommendations to improve their usefulness.