Partners for protection: a future direction for child protection?

The development of an innovative group working with female, non‐abusing carers is described. Part educational and part therapeutic, it sits squarely within child protection procedures and forms part of an interagency approach to protecting children from sexual abuse. Group processes are described and difficulties are explored, including those experienced by the women themselves in relation to child protection procedures. Current service approaches and attitudes may have potentially adverse consequences for the ultimate aim of child protection and these are considered together with a discussion of the value of alternative approaches. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parties,Institutional Control,and Trust in Government*

Objectives. Partisanship should affect evaluations of Congress just as it affects evaluations of the president, and these institutional evaluations should affect political trust. We argue that the relationship between partisanship and trust is dependent on partisan control of Congress and that much of party identification's influence on trust occurs indirectly through approval of governmental institutions. Methods. Using data collected before and after the 2002 congressional elections by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut, we examine changes in frequency distributions and mean values for trust and institutional approval. We use multivariate regression models and a path model to estimate the causes of political trust and self‐perceived change in trust. Results. We find evidence that party control of government and party identification are important in explaining trust and institutional approval. The Republican takeover of the Senate led Republicans to evaluate the Senate more favorably and to become more trusting of the government, while having the opposite effect on Democrats. Conclusions. The changes in approval and trust resulting from the 2002 elections suggest that at least some segment of the population is cognizant of changes in the political environment and updates its views of government when the political environment changes.     

Simple heterogeneity variance estimation for meta-analysis

Summary.  A simple method of estimating the heterogeneity variance in a random-effects model for meta-analysis is proposed. The estimator that is presented is simple and easy to calculate and has improved bias compared with the most common estimator used in random-effects meta-analysis, particularly when the heterogeneity variance is moderate to large. In addition, it always yields a non-negative estimate of the heterogeneity variance, unlike some existing estimators. We find that random-effects inference about the overall effect based on this heterogeneity variance estimator is more reliable than inference using the common estimator, in terms of coverage probability for an interval estimate.     

Conservative Protestantism and Tolerance toward Homosexuals: An Examination of Potential Mechanisms*

A number of studies over the years have reported that members of conservative Protestant churches tend to be less tolerant—that is, reluctant to extend civil liberties—vis‐à‐vis homosexuals. This paper explores several possible explanations for this pattern. In particular, we identify key aspects of conservative Protestant religious values and worldviews that may contribute to this pattern, and relevant hypotheses are tested using data from the 1988 General Social Survey. Results highlight the role of biblical literalism, as well as specific beliefs about the public nature of morality and the implications of perceived immoral conduct for collective well‐being. We discuss the implications of these findings for the understanding of contemporary conservative Protestantism, as well as for future research on the nexus of religion, politics, and democratic citizenship.     

A SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY OF COLLECTIVE ANXIETY ATTACKS: The "Mad Gasser" Reexamined

This article presents a social-psychological theory to explain collective behavior involving unusual somatic reactions. The authors term this social phenomenon a "collective anxiety attack," to distinguish it from the psychiatric label of "mass psychogenic illness." First, the article contrasts fundamental assumptions of a psychiatric-medical interpretation with a social-psychological interpretation. Next, the article illustrates the difference using a reinterpretation of and new data about the classic case of the "mad gasser of Mattoon." Then, the authors present a social-psychological theory which suggests that collective anxiety is induced by a shared belief in a threat rumor. Once a belief in an imminent threat spreads widely enough to create a consensual definition of the situation, the belief intensifies fear and distorts individual perception. Belief in the threat rumor creates psychological stress and expectancy effects that shape an individual's somatic reactions, so that expectations of feeling sick result in symptoms of sickness. In conclusion, the article suggests a program for research and ways of managing collective anxiety attacks.     

Movement Differences between Deliberate and Spontaneous Facial Expressions: Zygomaticus Major Action in Smiling

Previous research suggests differences in lip movement between deliberate and spontaneous facial expressions. We investigated within participant differences between deliberately posed and spontaneously occurring smiles during a directed facial action task. Using automated facial image analysis, we quantified lip corner movement during periods of visible Zygomaticus major activity. Onset and offset speed, amplitude of movement, and offset duration were greater in deliberate smiles. In contrast to previous results, however, lip corner movement asymmetry was not greater in deliberate smiles. Observed characteristics of deliberate and spontaneous smiling may be related to differences in the typical context and purpose of the facial signal. Karen L. Schmidt, Zara Ambadar, Jeffrey F. Cohn, and L. Ian Reed are affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Jeffrey F. Cohn is also affiliated with the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. This research was supported by NIMH Grants MH15279 and 167376 to Karen L. Schmidt, and NIMH Grant MH 51435 to Jeffrey F. Cohn. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Adena Zlochower in digitizing videotape used in this analysis and Rachel Levenstein in the analysis of data described in this paper. Address correspondence to Karen L. Schmidt, University of Pittsburgh, 121 University Pl, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; E-mail: kschmidt@pitt.edu