Law enforcement in an urban societyHoward, J. Woodford
doi: 10.1037/h0036186pmid: 4820215
Discusses 4 conditions which affect the capability of the judicial and law enforcement systems to cope with crime and presents several recommendations that may ease the workload and mitigate the potential ineffectiveness of the legal establishment. The law explosion (i.e., the quantitative and qualitative problems associated with social conflicts that are settled by law); the malaise in criminal law (e.g., incomplete and misunderstood crime statistics and reports and the uneven distribution of resources in the legal system); organizational fragmentation within the judicial, police, and law networks; and the overload of the courts are considered to be the major problems which face legal authorities concerned with the reduction in crime. Attention is focused on the discrepancies in role expectations of the police and the various systems of control which affect police behavior. Suggested remedies include additional resources, a redistribution and reorganization of present resources, and new means of judging social crimes, possibly decriminalization. (16 ref)
Harm, offense, and nuisance: Some first steps in the establishment of an ethics of treatmentRobinson, Daniel N.
doi: 10.1037/h0036226pmid: 4820216
Discusses ethical issues involved in the involuntary treatment of individuals who either have not consented to treatment or who are unable to rationally give their consent. J. Feinberg's summary of 7 traditional justifications for coercion is reviewed and related to therapeutic intervention efforts, based on the view that some degree of coercion is inevitable in society and that no right is absolutely given. Several court decisions involving 1st Amendment rights are discussed and their implications for the state's right to assign individuals to involuntary therapy or hospitalization are considered. In order to restrict or delimit the state's activities and/or prosecutions against individuals who are labeled "nuisances," the therapist should refuse to administer treatment in all cases not involved with the principle of "private harm"-when failure to limit the freedom of an individual will result in harm to that person (e.g., the prevention of suicide).
Controversy concerning the criminal justice system and its implications for the role of mental health workersSilber, David E.
doi: 10.1037/h0036266pmid: 4820217
Examines the 2 major philosophies of treatment for criminal behavior: (a) the view that criminal behavior is a symptom of psychological disturbance and should be treated with psychotherapy rather than imprisonment (i.e., treat the man rather than the act); and (b) the refutation of this view, which suggests that therapeutic treatment may be a violation of individual rights and may be of more harm than incarceration in conventional prison facilities (i.e., treat the deed rather than the man). The role of the mental health worker in the criminal justice system as a whole, in a therapeutically-oriented system, in the traditional prison setting, and in partial or post-release settings is discussed. Issues involved in testifying in court or working in mandatory treatment programs are presented, and research into effective treatment procedures is suggested using personnel from outside correctional settings. Implications for training are considered. (28 ref)
Reflections on introspectionRadford, John
doi: 10.1037/h0036079pmid: N/A
Reviews theoretical positions on introspection and its methods and the validity of the observations gained. Whether introspection is a method at all, whether one can be trained to perform introspection, and what the results of the process are, are discussed. Introspection as data and introspection as a method are distinguished; "data" refers to the statements or reports of introspection which can be used and measured as can any behavior. Introspection as method, however, involves "data" accessible only by observation. Several classifications of introspective methods are proposed (self-observation, self-reports, and thinking aloud) and related to historical definitions of psychology (e.g., W. Wundt, E. B. Titchener, and J. B. Watson). It is concluded that arguments about introspection and its methods are merely a question of what one is interested in; introspection is a technique which yields information that cannot be obtained in another way and arguments over its validity or definition are theoretically unhelpful. (21 ref)
Looking back and ahead in psychometricsGulliksen, Harold
doi: 10.1037/h0036080pmid: N/A
Reviews developments in 5 areas of psychometrics (computers, testing, scaling, factor analysis, and mathematical learning theory) beginning with L. L. Thurstone's work in the 1930s through the present. Recommendations for further research in measurement in each area are presented, including improvements in (a) the criteria against which aptitude tests are evaluated (e.g., college grades and achievements after college); (b) factor analyses of areas in learning, memory, physiology, or political science; and (c) the relationship between aptitude tests and learning tasks. Characteristics of recently proposed learning models are discussed, and questions in need of experimental investigation are noted (e.g., the use of stochastic or finite step models with learning data, the development of meaningful learning parameters, parameter estimation for individual and group learning curves, and evidence on reliability by replication in learning studies). (2 p ref)
Distribution by sex of authors and editors of psychological journals, 1970-1972: Are there enough women editors?Teghtsoonian, Martha
doi: 10.1037/h0036188pmid: N/A
Surveyed 11 psychological journals published in 1970-1972 (Sample A) and all 1972 journals dealing with research reports published by the American Psychological Association (APA; Sample B) to determine the frequency of women in the positions of principal editor, associate editor, or member of the editorial board. In the sample of 120 principal and associate editor years, only 1 was accounted for by a woman, a finding which indicates that there has been no real change since a study reported by M. B. Mitchell in 1951 . Possible explanations of the findings were investigated (e.g., publication rates of women, their contributions to published research, quality of research, age, and rate of publication by women). Results indicate that (a) women were represented as authors of published research as often as one would expect from their division membership in APA, and (b) women were not represented as editors as often as would be expected from their frequency as authors. An index of sexual equality suggests that there was no change in opportunity for women in Sample A from 1970 to 1972, and that APA journals show less bias in editor selection but not complete equality. (15 ref)
What is the source of the Fullerton-Cattell "principle"?Jones, F. Nowell
doi: 10.1037/h0038136pmid: N/A
Points out that there is no basis for the common tendency of writers on psychophysics to attribute the statement "Equally often noticed differences are equal unless always or never noticed" to G. S. Fullerton and J. M. Cattell (1892). No such statement appears in their monograph and its spirit seems contrary to their work's goals. The 1st attribution of the statement to Fullerton and Cattell appears to have been made by L. L. Thurstone (1932).
On the diversification of graduate study in psychologyMitchell, Charles C.
doi: 10.1037/h0038137pmid: N/A
The author's attempt to categorize the listings in the 1974–1975 edition of Graduate Study in Psychology by degree area cited by each school was futile, leading to the conclusions that this overspecialization of psychology will have negative impact on the ability to teach more than one course in the discipline and psychologists in professional areas will be able to carry out only one function.