The Role of Consistency in Detecting Deception: The Superiority of Correspondence over Coherence

Inconsistency is often considered an indication of deceit. The conceptualization of consistency used in deception research, however, has not made a clear distinction between two concepts long differentiated by philosophers: coherence and correspondence. The existing literature suggests that coherence is not generally useful for deception detection. Correspondence, however, appears to be quite useful. The present research developed a model of how correspondence is utilized to make judgments, and this article reports on four studies designed to elaborate on the model. The results suggest that judges attend strongly to correspondence and that they do so in an additive fashion. As noncorrespondent information accumulates, an increasingly smaller proportion of judges make truthful assessments of guilty suspects. This work provides a basic framework for examining how information is utilized to make deception judgments and forms the correspondence and coherence module of truth-default theory.     

Family walk-in centre—Eaton socon: Evaluation of a project on preventive intervention based in the community

The Family Walk-In Centre opened November 1978 as a pilot project at Eaton Socon in Cambridgeshire with the aims: to encourage parents to visit the centre on “their terms,” including parents who have abused or who fear they will abuse or neglect their child who may be difficult or handicapped, or because of chronic or acute family problems; further to mobilize “Self Help” groups and offer professional support. “Help” offered to the families included informal and formal group work, family casework and education in social and physical skills. Volunteer and professional support was given at the Centre and at home. Close liaison with specialist agencies was maintained to enable families to receive appropriate help. Periodic reviews and visits were made to maintain contact. An analysis of 50 families who attended the Centre between October 1979 and May 1980 was made to assess: the attendance and reattendance rate which indicated their acceptance of help offered and their motivation to use the Centre; the types of problems presented to the Centre, the types of action taken, the progress made when reviewed after three months and the degree of involvement by the volunteers. A final analysis will comprise 100 families. A preliminary summary found: significant reduction in the registration of new cases of child abuse; self-referrals exceeded significantly other modes of referral; loneliness and parenting difficulties formed the major proportion of families seeking help; 48% of families continued to attend for 3 months or more; work done centered upon discussion of parenting problems in 30% of the cases and involvement in activities with other families in 28%; 18% were assessed as showing improved child care after 3 months. The children are being monitored and will be assessed when they enter the infant school.     

An Experimental Investigation of Antisocial Lie-Telling Among Children With Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Typically Developing Children

Children's lie-telling is surprisingly understudied among children with significant behavioral problems. In the present study, experimental paradigms were used to examine antisocial lie-telling among ethnically diverse 5- to 10-year-old children with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD; n = 71) and a typically developing (TD) comparison sample (n = 50) recruited from a southeastern state from 2013 to 2014. Children completed two games that measured the prevalence and skill of their lies: (a) for personal gain and (b) to conceal wrongdoing. Children with DBD were more likely to lie for personal gain than TD children. With age, children were more likely to lie to conceal wrongdoing, but the reverse was true regarding lies for personal gain. Results advance knowledge concerning individual differences in children's lie-telling.     

Impact of Contact With Grandparents on Children's and Adolescents’ Views on the Elderly

Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination against the elderly (ageism) may manifest themselves in children at an early age. However, the factors influencing this phenomenon are not well known. Using both explicit and open-ended questions, this study analyzed the influence of personal and familial parameters on the views of 1,151 seven- to sixteen-year-old Belgian children and adolescents on the elderly. Four factors were found to affect these views: gender (girls had slightly more positive views than boys), age (ageism was lowest in 10- to 12-year-old, reminiscent of other forms of stereotypes and cognitive developmental theories), grandparents’ health, and most importantly, quality of contact with grandparents (very good and good contacts correlated with more favorable feelings toward the elderly, especially in children with frequent contacts).     

The CSGU: a measure of controllability, stability, globality, and universality attributions

This article reports initial evidence of construct validity for a four-factor measure of attributions assessing the dimensions of controllability, stability, globality, and universality (the CSGU). In Study 1, using confirmatory factor analysis, factors were confirmed across least successful and most successful conditions. In Study 2, following less successful performances, correlations supported hypothesized relationships between subscales of the CSGU and subscales of the CDSII (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992). In Study 3, following less successful performances, moderated hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that individuals have higher subsequent self-efficacy when they perceive causes of performance as controllable, and/or specific, and/or universal. An interaction for controllability and stability demonstrated that if causes are perceived as likely to recur, it is important to perceive that causes are controllable. Researchers are encouraged to use the CSGU to examine main and interactive effects of controllability and generalizability attributions upon outcomes such as self-efficacy, emotions, and performance.