Overt Act Research Articles

Involuntary Community Treatment of People Who Are Violent and Mentally Ill: A Legal Analysis

Three major legal mechanisms exist for providing involuntary community treatment to people who are violent and mentally disabled: outpatient commitment, preventive commitment, and conditional release from a hospital. In most states, predicted deterioration is either the explicit or the de facto criterion for involuntary community treatment. However, the constitutionality of this standard has been the subject of considerable debate, centering on whether involuntary treatment in the community requires a showing of imminent dangerousness and an overt act of dangerousness and whether a person who is not dangerous solely because of treatment may be committed. The author suggests that the predicted deterioration standard is constitutional, but only if it is accompanied by limitations on the duration of commitment and proof that involuntary treatment is necessary to prevent danger to self or others. The author also discusses whether a person committed under the predicted deterioration standard has the right to refuse treatment and whether persons hospitalized after being committed to involuntary community treatment should receive a hearing.

Chicanas in White-Collar Jobs: “You Have to Prove Yourself More”

Using the theoretical perspective originally developed by West and Zimmerman (1987)—wherein gender is viewed as a dynamic, interactional accomplishment rather than a categorical status, this article explores how both gender and race-ethnicity are reinforced and affirmed among 152 selected Chicana white-collar workers in a major public university. Based on results from a 1989–1990 mail survey and in-depth interviews with 35 randomly-selected respondents, I find that the tasks performed in the workplace, sex-and-race/ethnic discrimination and harassment, and the female-associated tasks Chicanas continue to do at home, all intensify their accomplishment of gender as well as reinforce occupational segregation by gender and gender-race/ethnicity. Moreover, Chicanas' attachment to family is linked ideologically to the survival of the Chicano culture, rendering their accomplishment of gender an overt act of racial-ethnic and cultural politics. This particular finding may well be a neglected truth in many women's lives.

Traits and social stereotypes: Efficiency differences in social information processing.

Research on the associative structure of social stereotypes and trait-defined categories has shown that stereotypes are associatively richer, more visual, and more distinctive (Andersen & Klatzky, 1987). We hypothesized that stereotypes might also operate more efficiently than trait-defined categories in social information processing. Participants were presented with sentences pairing either a stereotype or a trait label with an overt act or an internal state. Participants judged whether or not the designated target person would be likely to do or to experience what was described in the sentence. As predicted, participants judged the stereotype sentences significantly more quickly than the trait sentences. An incidental recall test of memory for the taiget terms, cued by the acts and states, showed that participants were also better able to remember the stereotypes than the traits.

Unconscious Censorship of Social and Political Ideas in Children's Books

Unconscious Censorship of Social and Political Ideas in Children's Books Patrick Shannon (bio) Most often censorship comes in overt forms: a group seeks to limit the talking, viewing, listening, reading, or writing of others because it contains obscene, violent, or subversive ideas—all in the name of "right thinking." Accordingly, most criticism of censorship attacks this easy mark, in serious studies such as those that usually appear in this column, and in humorous lampoons such as Ogden Nash's "Senator Smoot (Republican UT.) Is planning a ban on smut" (37-38) or Tom Lehrer's "Smut, Give me smut and nothing but, a dirty novel that's uncut, and unsubt . . . le." But a study I conducted on the social perspectives in children's favorite books suggests that the most insidious form of censorship may be not overt at all, but rather a product of our (American) unconscious biases toward certain social and political ideas. Immanuel Kant subsumed the concerns of humankind under three questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? and What may I hope? These questions are fundamental to understanding censorship in America because they show us that it can be not merely the result of an overt act, but also, an unconscious consequence of the times in which we live. Kant's questions assume both individual autonomy and a common thread among us all. They empower us to reason and to act, but also to feel and to dream. They suggest that the world is problematic; that it can be transformed by our actions; for if this were not true, then why should we hope at all? And hope is the key here. During Kant's lifetime, to hope meant to reflect upon the ideas of absolute moral good and social justice. Several groups, recognizing that their societies were neither moral nor just, acted to bring reality into conformity with their hopes. Through these collective acts, many imperfect democracies were born. Kant's critical view of humankind proposes a world in which happiness is based on an essential moral character and in which injustice has disappeared. Since his time, material conditions have improved dramatically, to the point at which Kant's hopes are realizable. But we are far from drawing the Kantian conclusion for ourselves. Rather, we have begun to speak of humankind in a different fashion, and to remove hope from its collective foundations. With material prosperity has come a reorganization of life wherein the objective factors of society seem unalterable, and reason and action appear powerless in opposition. Because of population growth, technological development, economic centralization, and rationalization of public and private life, it appears that we are left only enough autonomy to choose among paths that others prescribe for us. In this materially robust world, the consequent isolation caused by these objective factors pervades social life, until it appears natural that individuals are totally separate entities within all circumstances and that individualism is the cause of our social order and material well being. Where once the word, "humankind," conjured up ideas of moral good, social justice, and collectivity, it now connotes biological data, passivity, and individualism. The ideas which were essential to the rebirth of human rights and democracy now seem to threaten their continued longevity. Today, these ideas in their historic form have been redefined: morality becomes a matter of personal preference, justice a question of protection of property, and collectivity a momentary association to achieve personal goals. We no longer ask ourselves, "What may I hope?" Rather we wonder "Am I better off?" As Lasch suggests, in fact, the historic ideas of moral good, justice, and collectivity become unthinkable as society celebrates the cult of the individual. In this context we can speak of censorship as an unconscious consequence of the times in which we live. Our way of life becomes a censor, as certain ideas are not even considered by most Americans. To many, the past has been redefined in current terms; the future is fixed; and Kant's hopes are hopeless. Thus, as Goethe told us, "The outward is inward," because we begin to rationalize our thoughts and actions to match the structure of our bureaucratic, business...

Vicarious versus Direct Experience: How the Media Affect Psychological Growth

Abstract Information technologies such as television or computer games are often described as creating either a passive or an interactive experience. These polar alternatives can better be conceived of as direct experience on the one hand or vicarious experience on the other. Direct experience involves overt acts. Once an overt act is made, the physical world or the social world provides feedback about the consequences. Vicarious experience requires no overt response on the part of the person attending to the message. It is the main thesis of this article that direct experience tends to be normative while vicarious experience permits individualistic psychological growth because vicarious experience is not under the control of cither social norms or the norms imposed by the realities of the physical world. If this is correct, a critical index of personality is the ratio of direct to vicarious experience. If the ratio is great, a person is likely to be adjusted to social norms. If the ratio is small, a person will probably be in conflict with social norms. Much of the recent history of the behaviour of young people can be interpreted using these principles. However, there are still many puzzling aspects in the changes in the behaviour patterns of young people over the last decade or so. The implications for instructional design using information technology will be discussed.

Swapping recipes for control.

The comments by Azuma and Kojima are both encouraging and thought provoking. We thoroughly agree that there may be multiple recipes for both primary and secondary control and that a focus on those used in Japan can fill out the picture nicely. We emphasize, in addition, the essential overdetermination of human behavior, and the fact that elements of both primary and secondary control may sometimes underlie the same overt act. Overall, the comments of our Japanese colleagues provide rich food for thought, the proper nutrient for our embryonic model of control. While working on our cross-cultural analysis of control concepts (Weisz, Rothbaum, & Blackburn, 1984), we occasionally wondered if we Americans were engaged in yet another act of primary control. We had a fleeting vision of an American ordering fishsticks in a sushi bar, imposing Western habits and concepts where they do not fit. Had we, like the proverbial Mrs. Paul, modified entities delectable in their natural state by pulverizing, molding, and frying so that they fit our own tastes? The encour- aging and very thoughtful comments by Azuma (1984) and Kojima (1984) suggest that we have not completely deep-fried the Japanese concepts and that the model of primary and secondary control may provide one useful conceptual medium for cross-cultural comparison. Their comments also raise some important issues with respect to the primary- secondary model and cross-cultural psychology gen- erally. Recipes for Secondary Control An important notion suggested by Azuma is that in cultures where secondary control is valued and often pursued, a multiplicity of specific forms may have evolved. Following our piscatory analogy, an Amer- ican first visiting a sushi bar may see raw fish on rice, whereas a Japanese may see a rich array of delicacies, each differing from the others in subtle but very meaningful ways. Similarly, Azuma distin- guishes between subtly different forms of yielding, one reflecting secondary control via an enhanced sense of and self-control; another, sec- ondary control via resigned akirame; and yet another, secondary control linked to feelings of and (p. 970). In his delightful analysis, Azuma demonstrates that each form of yielding carries with it a prototypical aphorism that can be used to reorganize the psychological perceptions of the individual who yields. We agree with Azuma's point, in general. Our first impression was that the three forms of yielding that he describes closely parallel our notions of interpretive secondary control (controlling one's as- sertive drives and thus enhancing one's feelings of maturity and self-control), predictive secondary con- trol (resigned akirame), and vicarious secondary control (yielding related to love and empathy with respect to a significant other). On further reflection, though, it occurs to us that our perception may be a good example of Azuma's point, that is, subtle differences between various forms of secondary con- trol may be more meaningful to the Japanese than to Americans.

Psychosocial Crisis in Diabetic Renal Failure

Twenty-nine diabetic renal failure patients suffered a psychosocial crisis at the time when chronic dialysis or renal transplantation was required. These patients could be classified into groups as to the impact of the crisis in terms of participation in life-support therapy. Group 1 consisted of potentially lethal mechanism (9 patients): discontinued dialysis (5); refused to start dialysis (3); overt act to cause personal harm (1). Group 2 contained probably nonlethal mechanism (11 patients): threatened to discontinue dialysis or to never start dialysis if not given a chance for a transplant (5); threatened to discontinue dialysis or to never start dialysis (5); threatened to cause personal harm (1). Group 3 consisted of a combination of mechanisms (9 patients): with drug abuse (4); without drug abuse (5). Important similarities between the groups were easier to document than were subtle differences in the kinds of options in family and employment relationships; in the degree of objective and subjective handicap due to impaired vision; in the level of expectation and/or disappointment following renal transplantation; and in the capacity to cope with changing personal relationships produced by the complications of diabetes.

Criminalistics—A Look Back at the 1970s, a Look Ahead to the 1980s

Abstract It would be an overt act of omission to permit this decade to expire without reflection on its impact on criminalistics in the United States. Its influences were profound. No prior comparable period matched the growth and maturation of our profession during this decade. In the short span of ten years criminalistics, at first a stepchild of the analytical sciences, grew to achieve full acceptance as a legitimate discipline of applied science. In retrospect, this progress was long overdue considering that criminalistics entered the 1970s not as a new phenomenon but as one that had been in existence for nearly 60 years. Given the political and economic climate of the 1970s, anything less than the unpreceden:ed growth experienced would have warranted a severe condemnation of its professional community.

Discrimination in Government Procurement of Foreign Goods in the U. S. and Western Europe

This study seeks to identify and measure the extent of discrimination against foreign goods that is indicated by the purchasing practices of governments of a number of industrial nations. The Buy American policy has received considerable attention internationally as an overt act of discrimination on the part of U.S. government against foreign goods. Yet it should be recognized at the outset that the U.S. policy is unique only because it is explicitly set in the law. The U.S. government's Buy American policy and similar practices by other governments involve a systematic attempt to discriminate against foreign suppliers and in favor of domestic producers of simiar goods.1 The Buy American act directs government agencies to purchase goods for use in the U.S. from domestic suppliers except when a) the items are unavailable in the U.S. in sufficient quantity and/or quality, or b) the offered price of the domestic goods exceeds the delivered foreign price of the same goods by more than 6 percent (12 percent if the domestic items are supplied by small enterprises or are produced in areas where substantial unemployment prevails). In July 1962, the Department of Defense, acting on the basis of the deterioration in the U.S.

Reflections on A Contagion of Assassination*

ABSTRACT: Intrapsychic factors and events in close interpersonal relationships are supplemented by events in the political climate which can affect a potential assassin so as to lower his defenses against homicidal assassination impulses and facilitate or precipitate an overt act. Such events can include another assassination, a natural death, or an abdication of a president or leader. The “contagious” nature of killing is discussed with respect to previous and recent assassinations. The paper explores the potential effects upon James Earl Ray of President Johnson's “abdication” speech, upon Lee Harvey Oswald of the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, and upon Arthur Bremer of President Nixon's Vietnam escalation speech.

The Impact of Social Constraints on the Relationship Between Attitudes and Behavior

The present research is concerned with situational variables which may influence the relationship between attitudes and overt behavior. More specifically, the research tried to assess the effects of social participation, attitudinal congruence and disclosure on the relationship between a subject's attitude toward legalizing marijuana and an overt act toward that same attitude object. In this laboratory study, only attitudinal congruence seems to have any direct effect on the relationship between attitudes and behavior. The statement that attitudes are good predictors of behavior is, at present, controversial. Several studies relating to the above claim have been published.1 Deutscher (1966) states that to expect a between attitudes and behavior is unreasonable. DeFleur and Westie (1963) have argued that sociologists and social psychologists have fallen into the fallacy of expected correspondence when they anticipate a direct relationship between attitudes and behavior. And Warner and DeFleur (1969), following Yinger's (1965) suggestions, have proposed that only a postulate of contingent consistency can adequately explain attitudebehavior discrepancies. They emphasize the importance of interaction effects between individual dispositions and situational variables in accounting for the relationship between attitudes

Bridge Burners: Commitment and Participation in a Religious Movement

Commitment is described in terms of four manifestations observed in the Pentecostal Movement and in other secular movements. The experiential source of commitment is suggested and two components identified: (1) a subjective experience in which the self-image is altered and some degree of cognitive restructuring occurs, and (2) an overt act which sets the performer apart from the larger society in some significant way. Measure for each of these components as they occur in the Pentecostal Movement are described and data on the correlation of each with participation in the social organization of the movement is presented. An operational definition of commitment is suggested for use in further studies.

Verbal Attitudes, Overt Acts, and the Influence of Social Constraint in Interracial Behavior

Verbal Attitudes, Overt Acts, and the Influence of Social Constraint in Interracial Behavior

Verbal Attitudes, Overt Acts, and the Influence of Social Constraint in Interracial Behavior

This paper studies racial attitudes as related to an indicated willingness to accept open occupancy in white residential neighborhoods. The study attempts to ascertain whether the predictability of the overt response of a given individual to a publicly salient issue can be increased by knowing the individual's personal attitudinal position toward Negroes in general, and the influence of certain of his significant reference groups with respect to the same issue. Results of a field study show that proportional reductions in error are greater in efforts to predict overt response to the open occupancy issue when both attitudinal position and reference group influence are employed than when either attitude or reference group are employed separately.

"Verbal Attitudes and Overt Behavior"

In his attempt to delineate the relationship between attitudes and behavior, Lawrence Linn reviews past studies, particularly their methods of measurement and discrepancies between attitudes and behavior.1 De Fleur-Westie study2 is cited as superior to its predecessors, but Linn feels that their attitude measure does not measure the same attitude objects assessed by their behavioral measure. Linn uses the identical attitude objects in the questionnaire items and the observed behavior, and, to make the experiment real, he uses Negro experimenters. No relationship was found between attitudes and behavior for the total group. Prediction from attitudes to behavior for liberals was not possible, but prejudiced subjects behaved largely in accordance with their attitudes. However, there are certain difficulties in the Linn study. Linn criticizes the De Fleur-Westie article on two counts: (1) their method of attitude assessment . . may not measure the same attitude objects or situational variables involved in the willingness to pose for a picture with a Negro in various social situations, and (2) . . reference groups . . . are more inclusive than peers alone and furthermore should be seen as antecedent rather [than] intervening variables.3 With Linn's first point we agree. However, he does not have any data indicating that his measurement procedure is an improvement over usual techniiques. two attitude assessment instruments he used gave the same results when related to the behavior measure. Linn's second criticism is that De Fleur and Westie take the position that an individual shifts his definition of the situation as his immediate referents change. De Fleur and Westie did find that 71.8 percent of the subjects invoked some type of reference group. All of those who did cite a reference group mentioned some type of peer group. They did not conclude from this, as Linn implies, that all important reference groups for decision-making are peers. Among other problems raised by the Linn study are: (1) the use of Negro experimenters and (2) the adequacy of the sample for the conclusions drawn. Linn maintains that his design is an improvement in that he uses Negro experimenters to increase the realness of the issue and the of the attitude object. A basic problem here is that there was no control group with which to compare the effects of salience of the attitude object. same results might have been obtained using white experimenters. different results obtained in the Linn study and the De Fleur-Westie study might be explained by differences in the samples used. Linn said, The Ss in the present study as well as in the De Fleur and Westie study were young college girls. . . .4 In the De FleurWestie study, . . half of each group was male. . .5 1 Lawrence S. Linn, Verbal Attitudes and Overt Behavior: A Study of Racial Discrimination, Social Forces, 43 (March 1965), p. 355. 2 Melvin L. De Fleur and Frank R. Westie, Verbal Attitudes and Overt Acts: An Experiment on the Salience of Attitudes, American Sociological Review, 23 (December 1958), pp. 667673. 3 Linn, op. cit., pp. 362, 363. 4 Ibid., p. 363. 5 De Fleur and Westie, op. cit., p. 669.

Mass Communication and Social Change

Mass Communication and Social Change

"Need" and "Overt Act" in Juvenile Court Law

The current trend of academic analysis of the juvenile court as a treatment organization and the emphasis on treatment aspects of juvenile court activities have led to a popular assump tion that the court applies a criterion of need in dispensing its services. A traditional legal analysis would suggest the applica tion of a criterion of overt act. Even if we assume that the intention of juvenile court legislation is to apply some criterion of need, the question then becomes one of how needs are demonstrated or measured. A criterion of demonstrated need brings one full circle to a requirement of overt act.

Verbal Attitudes and Overt Acts: An Experiment on the Salience of Attitudes

turning up new leads for questioning, observation, and interpretation. The method of participant observation was adopted in this case only after responsible Air Force personnel believed they had obtained about all they could from general observation, questionnaires, and formal interviews. In addition, they suspected that airmen, like other human beings, could and did maintain false fronts, often deceiving officers, researchers, and perhaps themselves. Here seemed to be a new approach that might probe beneath the surface in a revealing way. Now that the study has been completed, both responsible Air Force personnel and we ourselves believe that significant results were obtained. Obviously no other study could duplicate our procedures in complete detail. But something of the sort could profitably be done, we believe, in the study of institutions such as prisons and hospitals. We suspect that heretofore most would-be participant observers have been early spotted by the objects of study and thereby prevented from entering fully into the life of the group in question. This study has at least demonstrated that thorough-going participant observation is very difficult, but not impossible.

Syncope in a population of healthy young adults; incidence, mechanisms, and significance.

A better understanding of mechanisms precipitating syncopal episodes and their likelihood of recurrence can lead to prevention of accidents resulting from syncope and perhaps prevent syncopal episodes at crucial times. Eighty-two persons studied described a total of 113 syncopal episodes occurring sometime in the past. The factors, surrounding the acute clinical episode of syncope, were highly variable. More than one factor may have played a role in the precipitation of syncope in a large number of the cases. The overt act at the time of syncope was most often postural change or pain. Cardiac arrhythmias induced by the common respiratory maneuvers were often associated with syncope. Disturbances in a person's general hygiene not only decrease his stress tolerance but apparently make him more susceptible to syncope.

The Dubrovnik Festival

How many people have heard of the Dubrovnik Festival of the Arts? Under what flat stone have our culture-mongers and journalists been sleeping? I confess that before I went there this summer I had only heard the vaguest rumours about it. And none of these had sharpened my interest—nowadays, so many holiday resorts try to stage some entertainments to attract tourists which they presume to call a Festival. At the most I expected one or two indifferent concerts, some folk-dancing and a local drama of only local interest. Certainly nothing had appeared in the English press to lead me to expect anything more than that. Now, having been there, I cannot help wondering whether the complete lack of news about Dubrovnik doesn't amount to an overt act of press censorship.