Brian J. Bigelow

Latency Period as Affected by News Content

Abstract The factors that affect the latency period between attracting a target persons attention and delivering either good or bad news were examined. The subjects were 66 (34 female, 32 male) Canadian university students. Three hypotheses were confirmed: There was a longer latency period for bad news than for good news, women had a longer latency period for bad news than for good news and a longer latency period for delivering either bad news or good news than men did, and there was a longer latency period when women delivered bad news to a man than when women delivered bad news to a woman.

Developmental Changes in the Conceptual Friendship Expectations Associated with Children's Friendship Preferences

The relationship between friendship preferences for a hypothetical age-mate and the developmental levels of the dyadic friendship expectations (FEs) were obtainedfrom two samples (ages 9 to 10 and 11 to 12) of both sexes (N = 80). Two experiments were conducted, one for each sample. Subjects were first interviewed and classified into their dominant FE levels on a developmental scale. Subjects then rank-ordered preferences for tape recordings of four hypothetical age-mates, each representing alternative FE level statements. These four conditions were one FE level below (1), same level, one level above (+1) and two levels above (+2) the subjects dominant FE level. Sociometric choices were also observed on the 9and 10-year-olds. There was a successive age-shift of first choices from a random distribution over conditions to a -1, + I bifurcation, followed by a predominance of + 1. These changes were accompanied by increased FE interview responses at adjacent FE levels and better recall of condition most preferred. Tentative interpretations were in terms of equilibration mediated by developmental changes in verbal and memory skills. Sociometric choices were mainly in terms of FE level similarity, but were less similar for the older subjects. The reasons for the differences between hypothetical and sociometric choices were interpreted in terms of social compromise and/or measurement error.

Assessing Children's Friendship Expectations: Supplementing the Semistructured Interview with Picture Sequence Tasks

Seventy-five subjects from Grades 2 and 4 were given two tasks to determine their developmental friendship expectation (FE) levels. The first task employed a semistructured FE interview and the second was a picture sequence task similar in format to the Picture Arrangement (PA) subtest of the WISC-R. To control for sequencing ability on the pictorial task, a modification of PA was also administered. Nine FE picture sequences, corresponding to an extant eight-level developmental sequence, were administered to the children. Interviews were coded along the same dimensions. FE levels based on the interview task were marginally more advanced for both grades: 11 subjects were markedly competent and 8 markedly better on the interview; 11 subjects were markedly competent and 10 markedly better on the visual task. Interview FEs showed no significant relationship to age, whereas picture sequence FEs did. This difference was due to the Type II errors on the visual task at Grade 2 and the interview task at Grade 4. Picture sequencing was unrelated to PA or to task difficulty. The visual task was an apparent underestimate of FE level for 65 subjects who scored s FE level 2 on the visual task. However, sole use of the interview created a large underestimate for 10 of 11 subjects who scored > FE level 2 on the visual index. The risk of underestimation was eliminated by additional use of the visual index, and the more advanced the performance on the visual task, the higher the risk of false negative errors on the interview.

On the Assessment of Children in Suspected Child Sexual Abuse in Light of Daubert and Frye: Limitations of Profiles and Interviews as Scientifically Grounded Evidence

Practice with children and families entails the higher probability of encountering forensic issues of child sexual abuse (CSA) assessments for which relatively few psychologists, allied mental health and legal practitioners are sufficiently well equipped. The current paper reviews some of the key psycholegal issues bearing on the assessment of suspected CSA in the contexts of: (a) recent psycholegal precedence and common law rules of reliability and admissibility of CSA profile evidence; (b) the empirical problems with CSA syndromes; and (c) the problems with childrens interviews as evidence, and suggestions for valid interviewing guidelines supporting free recall. These psycholegal issues are presented in terms of the Frye standard for expert testimony and the Federal Rules of Evidence, with recent American and Canadian case illustrations, such as Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Hadden v. State of Florida (1997), Bighead v. The United States of America (1997), Diocese of Winona v. Interstate Fire & Cas. Co. (1994), and R. v. Simpson (1996).