Introducing instruments to structure risk assessment has been shown to improve agreement between probation professionals about the assessment of offenders’ risks and needs. The subsequent decisions about intervention plans, however, are to a large extent still unstructured. This article addresses the question of whether probation officers agree about intervention plans and whether agreement differs between experienced and less experienced probation officers. A group of 44 Dutch probation officers wrote intervention plans for four cases in which the risk and needs assessment was given. Results showed that the overall agreement about the intervention plan is poor. Looking at the different domains of an intervention plan, agreement about the advice on the sanction, conditions, criminogenic needs to be addressed, and programs is fair. On all other domains (instructions, control, intensity of supervision, and goals), agreement is poor. Experience of the probation officers did not influence the agreement about the intervention plans substantially.
Objective: Perspective-taking difficulties have been demonstrated in autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders, among other clinical presentations, and are traditionally examined from a Theory of Mind (ToM) point of view. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) offers a behavioural and contextual interpretation of perspective-taking, proposing that this ability can be studied in more detail by examining specific perspective-taking relations. To implement relational perspective-taking measures in clinical practice, it is important to gain more knowledge about how these relate to traditional measures of perspective-taking. Method: The current study is focused on the relation between the Barnes-Holmes relational perspective-taking protocol and both the Faux-pas and the Strange Stories tests, in a sample of healthy controls and individuals with an anxiety disorder or psychotic disorder. The work expands upon earlier research in this field. Results: Our results showed that, across the whole sample, the Barnes-Holmes protocol was positively correlated with both the Faux-pas and the Strange Stories tests. Furthermore, the Barnes-Holmes protocol was found to predict ToM performance. Correlations between the Strange Stories test and the Barnes-Holmes protocol were non-significant when we corrected for intelligence. Conclusions: The evidence suggests that relational perspective-taking is strongly related to ToM performances. Results are compared to other RFT studies and implications for clinical practice are discussed.
In building Bayesian belief networks, the elicitation of all probabilities required can be a major obstacle. We learned the extent of this often-cited observation in the construction of the probabilistic part of a complex influence diagram in the field of cancer treatment. Based upon our negative experiences with existing methods, we designed a new method for probability elicitation from domain experts. The method combines various ideas, among which are the ideas of transcribing probabilities and of using a scale with both numerical and verbal anchors for marking assessments. In the construction of the probabilistic part of our influence diagram, the method proved to allow for the elicitation of many probabilities in little time.
Children of parents with mental illness have an elevated risk of developing a range of mental health and psychosocial problems. Yet many of these children remain mentally healthy.
The study of intuition and its relation to thoughtful reasoning is a burgeoning research topic in psychology and beyond. While the area has the potential to radically transform our conception of the mind and decision making, the procedures used for establishing empirical conclusions have often been vaguely formulated and obscure. This book fills a gap in the field by providing a range of methods for exploring intuition experimentally and thereby enhancing the collection of new data.
The book begins by summarizing current challenges in the study of intuition and gives a new foundation for intuition research. Going beyond classical dual-process models, a new scheme is introduced to classify the different types of processes usually collected under the label of intuition. These new classifications range from learning approaches to complex cue integration models.
The book then goes on to describe the wide variety of behavioural methods available to investigate these processes, including information search tracing, think aloud protocols, maximum likelihood methods, eye-tracking, and physiological and non-physiological measures of affective responses. It also discusses paradigms to investigate implicit associations and causal intuitions, video-based approaches to expert research, methods to induce specific decision modes as well as questionnaires to assess individual preferences for intuition or deliberation.
By uniquely providing the basis for exploring intuition by introducing the different methods and their applications in a step-by-step manner, this text is an invaluable reference for individual research projects. It is also very useful as a course book for advanced decision making courses, and could inspire experimental explorations of intuition in psychology, behavioural economics, empirical legal studies and clinical decision making.
