Michael S. Pallak

Bad decisions, responsibility, and attitude change: Effects of volition, foreseeability, and locus of causality of negative consequences.

Present results suggest that the effect of both foreseen and unforeseen negative consequences may be viewed in terms of attributions of causality. In Exp I, with 22 male undergraduates, Ss forewarned about the possibility of negative consequences evaluated a chosen task more favorably and made stronger internal attributions of causality for negative consequences than did unforewarned Ss. As expected, in Exp II with 108 male undergraduates, foreseeability of negative consequences had no effect when attributions of causality were directly manipulated and were orthogonal to initial choice and foreseeability. Ss in the high-choice-internal attribution conditions evaluated the task more favorably than Ss in the remaining conditions whether consequences were foreseen or unforeseen. Thus an individual may assume responsibility for negative consequences perceived as contingent on or caused by himself. Foreseeability may imply responsibility by implying an internal locus of causality in much the same fashion as other cues that determine attributions of causality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Hospitalization for Mental Disorders in General Hospitals

Kiesler and Sibulkin (in press) reanalyzed various national data bases to develop a comprehensive view of mental hospitalization in the United States. The present article, based upon Kiesler and Sibulkin, summarizes characteristics of inpatient psychiatric episodes in general hospitals and, in particular, focuses upon episodes in general hospitals without inpatient psychiatric units. We review and update these data and discuss several recent studies employing other data bases. Desirable elements for a national data base on mental hospitalization are discussed from a behavioral science perspective.