Polygraph testing, psychological research, and public policy: An introductory note.

1985 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-347
Author(s):  
Edward S. Katkin
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Introductory Note ◽  
Polygraph Testing

scholarly journals Reactance or Rationalization? Predicting Public Responses to Government Policy

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 256-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devon Proudfoot ◽  
Aaron C. Kay
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Public Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
The Status ◽  
Social Psychological Research

The public’s attitudes toward new governmental laws and regulations are frequently at the forefront of public policy debates. Will the public react negatively to a newly implemented public safety regulation or embrace the change? Does the public’s initial favorability toward a proposed environmental policy indicate public opinion and compliance if such a law passed? Social psychological research directly explores these questions and provides insight into how specific policy designs and implementations can shape public response to new regulations. People may exhibit one of two contrasting responses to policies: reactance or rationalization. When a rule is imposed, individuals often display reactance—exaggerating the value of the behavior being banned or restricted. However, individuals also frequently show an opposite, perhaps less conspicuous, tendency—They rationalize government policy; that is, they diminish alternatives and actively justify why the imposed regulations are favorable. In experiments, two factors—individuals’ attentional focus and a policy’s apparent absoluteness—determine whether people react against or rationalize policies that seek to restrict their behavior. In other evidence, people’s motivation to defend the status quo may hinder—but also facilitate—support for public policy changes. The implications can guide public policy design and implementation.

Research and Public Policy

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 821-823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard D. Eron
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Corporal Punishment ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
The Status ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Television Violence

Professor Hyman has reviewed for us all the research that has been done on the effects of corporal punishment in the schools.1 It is actually a meager record because of the reasons he has mentioned, many of them ethical, demographic, and religious. Whatever research has been published on the effects of corporal punishment, however, would indicate that although the practice is widespread in the United States, corporal punishment is not an effective means of discipline and has many harmful effects on the recipient of the punishment, both physical and psychological. Certainly there are enough data, which Dr Hyman has assembled over 20 years, to warrant the measures he advocates to get the message out to the public as well as to concerned professionals, and to formulate public policy aimed at eliminating corporal punishment in our schools as well as all other settings, including the home. And to those cynics who are skeptical about what influence psychological research findings can have on public policy, my own personal experience over 40 years with research on the effects of viewing television violence on aggressive behavior of children indicates that psychological and sociological research findings can have a profound influence. But changing behavior takes persistence and time. There are too many vested interests who favor the status quo and are threatened by change. There are also many professionals who very often have not done any research in the area, but consider themselves authorities, as well as lay persons who are convinced that the old way of doing things is the only right way.

Racial Bias and Public Policy

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Glaser ◽  
Katherine Spencer ◽  
Amanda Charbonneau
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Expert Testimony ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Race Bias ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Health Care Politics ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
And Control

This article explores psychological science on race bias and its implications in several domains of public policy, with special attention paid to biased policing as an illustrative example. Race bias arises from normal mental processes, many outside our conscious awareness and control. This research directly applies to public policy, especially where concerned with regulating behavior and managing uncertainty. Research links both implicit and explicit racial bias to behavior, and uncertainty exacerbates the influence of bias in decision-making. Sample policy domains—where psychological research, race bias, and public policy intersect—include education, employment, immigration, health care, politics/representation, and criminal justice. Psychological research informs policy by documenting causes and processes, by expert testimony in court, and by generating and evaluating interventions to reduce race bias.

Psychological Research and Public Policy: Bridging the Gap

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Dovidio ◽  
Victoria M. Esses
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Psychological Research

Bridging the Gap: A Seminar in Psychology and Public Policy Issues

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. Heise
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Academic Training ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Psychology Majors ◽  
The Media ◽  
Social Importance

This article describes a seminar for senior psychology majors concerned with applications of psychological research to current and controversial issues of social importance. The students, in groups of two or three, prepared symposia on public policy issues. They presented each symposium twice; the first presentation was based principally on the media and the second on the research literature and other primary sources. The seminar gave students an enhanced appreciation of the strengths and limitations of scientific psychology's contributions to public policy and can help to bridge the gap between their academic training in psychology and their concerns as members of society.

The Legacy of Racism for Children

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Racial Disparity ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Child Sex Trafficking ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Adolescent Victims

The Legacy of Racism for Children: Psychology, Law, and Public Policy is the first volume to review the intersecting implications of psychology, public policy, and law with the goal of understanding and ending the challenges facing racial minority youth in America today. Proceeding roughly from causes to consequences—from early life experiences to adolescent and teen experiences—each chapter focuses on a different domain, explains the laws and policies that create or exacerbate racial disparity in that domain, reviews relevant psychological research and its implications for those laws or policies, and calls for next steps. Chapter authors examine how race and ethnicity intersect with child maltreatment (including child sex trafficking, corporal punishment, and memory for and disclosures of abuse), child dependency court decisions, custody and adoption, familial incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, police–youth interactions, jurors’ perceptions of child and adolescent victims and defendants, and U.S. immigration law and policy. The book is meant to be accessible to all who want to end law- and policy-related racial disparities for children—researchers, students, teachers, social workers and social service administrators, police, attorneys, judges, and the general public. Much of the value of this book lies in its potential to influence law and policy, and to help those working on the front lines understand what they can do to end the legacy of racism for children.

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