Psychology Vocabulary

Common Conceptions

• Certain ideas are commonly believed, but their truth needs evaluation through research.

• Examples of commonly believed ideas:

  • Gateway drugs: Do they exist?

  • Bed sharing: Does it cause sudden infant death?

  • Caesarian section: Does it make infant bonding more difficult?

Gateway Drugs

• Definition: A drug that increases the likelihood of using other, "harder" drugs.

• Typical Progression:

  • Non-users → beer/wine → cigarettes/hard liquor → cannabis → other illicit drugs.

  • Other possible progressions exist.

  • Progression varies across ethnic groups and countries (US, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, Israel).

Gateway Drugs: Nicotine

• Chen et al. (2002): Risk Ratio of Prior Cigarette Smoking on Last 30 Days Alcohol Use

  • Example: Whites who smoked previously are 5.82 times more likely to have drunk alcohol in the last 30 days compared to whites who haven’t smoked.

  • Net Effect (Risk Ratio) = 5.82

• Torabi et al. (1993):

  • Teens who smoke a pack or more a day have 10 to 30 times the risk of using illegal drugs.

• US Dept of Health:

  • Young daily smokers are 114 times more likely to have used cannabis at least 11 times compared to those who hadn’t smoked.

• Questions:

  • Does smoking cause illicit drug use?

  • Or are both smoking and illicit drug use due to another cause (e.g., risk-taking behaviour)?

Gateway Drugs: The Gateway Hypothesis' Propositions

1. Sequencing: One substance is regularly initiated before another.

2. Association: One substance increases the likelihood of using a second substance.

3. Causation: Use of the first substance actually causes the use of the second substance.

   • Causation is the most controversial claim.

Gateway Drugs: Nicotine - If Causal, How?

1. Learning:

   • Children learn these behaviours through practice conditioning.

   • Learn to smoke and acclimatise the body to inhaling smoke (also used for cannabis, crack, opium, methamphetamine).

   • Learn that moods and feelings are altered by drugs.

   • Learn to cope with boredom and stress with chemicals.

2. Perceptions of Risk:

   • The initial decision to accept the risk involved with tobacco makes the risk with other drugs seem less severe.

   • Examples: "Got to die of something", "Grandpa smoked and lived to 85".

3. Social Factors:

   • Peer pressure, norms, glamour.

4. Pharmacological Factors:

   • Nicotine may create a biochemical pathway so that the next drug becomes more pleasurable.

   • Some evidence in mice, but animal research often doesn’t represent what happens in humans.

5. Diminishing High

   • The high resulting from cannabis use diminishes over time, leading users to seek bigger highs from other drugs.

Gateway Drugs: Cannabis - Facts

• Research has established that cannabis use is associated with:

  1. Increased risk of psychosis with heavy use during adolescence.

  2. Increased risk of car accidents.

  3. Memory problems in users even after 1 month’s abstinence: Research indicates that use during adolescence alters the functioning of the hippocampus (key brain area involved in memory).

  4. Increased risk of cancers?

     • Head and neck cancers increased, but research controversial because cannabis users also use tobacco and alcohol, which cause head and neck cancers.

  5. Might shrink cancerous tumors?

  6. Slows down Alzheimer’s development – removes proteins involved in Alzheimer’s

  7. 200 million spent enforcing marijuana laws in NZ

  8. Govt could make 150 million in taxes if legalised?

• Castle et al. (2025, Frontiers in Oncology):

  • Examined 10,000 research papers.

  • 75% of studies supported the role of cannabis for reducing inflammation, pain, nausea, and appetite loss.

  • Has the potential for shrinking/killing cancer cells.

    • Shown with animals and in test tubes but not (yet) in human clinical data.

  • But is cannabis a gateway drug?

Gateway Drugs: Cannabis - Gateway?

• Kandel (1984):

  • Never Used Cannabis: 7% of American youth used another illicit drug.

  • Previously Used Cannabis: 33% used another illicit drug.

  • Used Cannabis Daily: 84% used another illicit drug.

  • The earlier the age at which any drug was used, the more likely the user moved to the next drug in sequence.

• Secades-Villa, Garcia-Rodriguez, Jin, Wang, and Blanco (2015)

  • 6624 participants.

  • 44.7% who have used cannabis go on to use other illegal drugs.

  • Those with mental disorders (e.g., depression, aggression) are particularly likely to go on to other illegal drugs.

• Degenhardt et al. (2010)

  • 17 countries.

  • Many different patterns in drug progression suggest that drugs such as cannabis are not causal in leading to the use of other drugs.

  • Individual characteristics of users make them more likely to try different drugs.

Gateway Drugs: Cannabis - Against

• Cannabis is used before other drugs simply because it is more socially acceptable and readily available.

  • In Vietnam, American soldiers used heroin before alcohol because it was cheap and readily available.

• Twin studies indicate that identical twins are more likely to develop a dependence on tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis, and that a substantial reason for this is individual characteristics (genetic) rather than environmental (cannabis causing use of other drugs).

  • What kind of individual differences/genes? à risk-taking.

Gateway Drugs: Tattoos, Piercing

• Personal characteristics of drug users lead to more adventurous behaviours.

Rist Taking

• Base Jumping:

  • 1 in 60 participants die.

  • 8x more dangerous than parachuting from a plane.

Gateway Drugs: Cannabis - Against and For

• If it’s just personal characteristics that lead people to use cannabis and then harder drugs, then correlation amongst identical twins should be 1.00 and much higher than for non-identical twins

  • Monozygotic: identical

  • Dizygotic: non-identical

• Twin studies explain some but not all of drug dependence

  • Proportion of variance accounted for by genes:

    • .400 = 40.0\%%

    • .794 = 79.4\%%

    • .724 = 72.4\%%

    • .623 = 62.3\%%

Gateway Drugs: Cannabis - For

• Christchurch Longitudinal Study (2000):

  • When controlled for social class, parent characteristics (parental conflict, criminality, alcohol and drug use), characteristics of cannabis user (self-esteem, previous behaviour problems, novelty-seeking behaviour, affiliation with delinquent peers, attachment to parents), still get effects

Gateway Drugs: Cannabis - Summary

• The research is all over the place as to whether cannabis is a gateway drug!

• There is some evidence that cannabis is a gateway drug, but so are cigarettes, alcohol, etc. (Jorgensen & Wells, 2021).

  • So why is only cannabis illegal?

• Research: primarily only (a) use of cannabis during pregnancy, (b) heavy use of cannabis during adolescence, or (c) heavy use during later adulthood that is associated with problems.

• Tobacco is estimated to be somewhat more harmful than cannabis

• Alcohol is reasoned to cause 3.6 times more damage in society than cannabis (Nutt et al., 2010).

• Cannabis has some good features (medical use).

• Punishment (prison) has not stopped cannabis use à so what might be a better solution?

Portugal’s Drug Policy

• Portugal decriminalised drugs in 2001.

  • Possession of small quantities is illegal but treated as a health issue, not a criminal issue.

  • Small fine and referral for treatment rather than jail.

  • Focus shifted from penalising drug users to helping them.

European Union - Cannabis

• Last year prevalence among young adults (15-34 years)

European Union - Cocaine

• Last year prevalence among young adults (15-34 years)

European Union - MDMA

• Last year prevalence among young adults (15-34 years)

European Union - Amphetamines

• Last year prevalence among young adults (15-34 years)

European Union - Opioids

• High-risk opioid use (rate/1 000)

Portugal - Drug-Induced Deaths

• Drug-induced deaths over time following decriminalisation.

European Union - Drug-Induced Mortality Rates

• National estimates among adults (15-64 years)

European Union - HIV Infections

• Newly diagnosed cases attributed to injecting drug use

U.S.A. State of Oregon: Fentanyl

• 2021: Decriminalised possession of small amounts of hard drugs (heroin, fentanyl, meta-amphetamine).

• 2mg of fentanyl can kill.

  • Many pills on the black market contain 5mg and cost only a few dollars.

• Oregon has very high use of fentanyl and very low treatment opportunities.

• In every state, regardless of drug laws, the trend is the same:

  • Greater access = higher fatalities.

• The law change in Oregon has not caused the problem with fatalities.

Colorado and Washington: Cannabis

• Legalised Cannabis in 2012

• Adult marijuana use rises

• Teen marijuana use doesn't change

• CDOR COLORADO Department of Revenue Taxation Division Marijuana Tax Revenue.

All U.S. States Selling Cannabis Legally

• State and Local Sales and Excise Tax Revenue (millions)

• Tax Revenue from Cannabis Sales Exceeds $1 Billion Per Year

Cannabis - Pros

• Much less damaging overall than alcohol.

• It can raise millions in taxes per year.

Cannabis - Cons

• Can increase the probability of psychosis in adolescents with heavy use.

• If ingested during pregnancy, can increase the incidence of memory, attention, and problem-solving issues in children.

• Can lead to car accidents.

• Can lead to respiratory problems (cough, bronchitis, pneumonia).

• Can lead to testicular cancer.

• Can lead to addiction.

Drug Policy - Summary

• Portugal:

  • Decriminalised all drugs à with a concurrent focus on treatment, resulted in less use and less deaths.

• USA:

  • Legalised cannabis à increased supply à led to increased uptake and, in some cases, increased heavy use.

• Oregon:

  • Legalised fentanyl à supply increased à use of fentanyl and deaths increased (but not more than in other states where supply also increased).

  • The main issue is the supply, not the legality of the drug.

• Conclusions:

  • Increasing the supply of a drug à increased uptake.

  • Decriminalisation with increased access to treatment à good outcomes (Portugal).

  • Legalisation with increased supply and more restricted access to treatment à less positive outcomes.

  • 15% of rats become dependent on alcohol if available à same % as humans à if drugs are available, about 15% of the population will be prone to heavy use and dependence.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): Bed Sharing

• SIDS is known as SUDI (Sudden Unexpected Death of an Infant) in NZ and Australia.

  • Infant found dead after having been put to bed, with no signs of having suffered.

  • Even after an autopsy, the cause of death is unexplained.

  • U.S.: 0.5 deaths/1000 live births

• Common Conception: Bed sharing increases risk of SIDS.

• Does bed sharing increase infant death rates?

SIDS Research

• New Zealand Research identified several factors related with SIDS

  • Mother smoke when pregnant

  • Male

  • Low Birth Weight

  • Premature Birth

  • Maori

  • Maternal Smoking 2 Months

  • Paternal Smoking 2 Months

  • Sleep on Back

  • Bed Sharing

SIDS Shared Bed - Chicago Infant Mortality Study (1993-1996):

• Definitely don’t share a bed if:

  1. parent has been drinking

  2. parent ill

Bonding is More Difficult Following a Caesarian Section?

• How common are caesarians?

  • World Health Organisation: 15% on medical grounds

  • China: 46%

  • U.S.: 32%

  • Performed when mothers’ or baby’s health is at risk (e.g., breech birth -- buttocks or feet first).

• NZ Statistics:

  • 2007: 24% of births were casesarian

  • Major indications for Caesarean Section - Time Trends 1992 - 2000

    • Repeat caesareans

    • Malpresentation

    • Fetal distress

    • Failure to progress

Caesarian Section - Hormonal Differences

• Vaginal Delivery:

  • In normal (vaginal) birth, the mother releases the hormone oxytocin.

  • Known in media as the “love drug” à increases when you are in love, even when you look at your dog.

  • Stimulates maternal behaviour.

• Hypothesis:

  • Bonding between mother and infant will be greater if infant undergoes a vaginal delivery

• Oxytocin in the brain

Bonding After Caesarian - Study and Results

• Swain et al. (2008):

  • Brain responses to own infant’s cries vs. other infant’s cries.

  • 2-4 weeks after vaginal delivery vs. C-section.

  • Vaginal Delivery Mothers: greater activation in brain areas dedicated to sensory processing, empathy, arousal, motivation & reward compared to C-section mothers when listening to own baby cry vs. other baby cry.

  • Greater responsiveness comes at a cost?

    • Greater activation in brain areas when listening to own baby cry is related to higher rates of depression in mothers.

• Oxytocin and Fathering:

  • Oxytocin given to fathers increases contact with children and leads to warmer parenting (Wittfoth-Schardt, 2012).

Statistical Learning in Infants and Children

• At birth, infants…

  • prefer forward-going speech to backward-going speech

  • prefer their own language to another language

  • can discriminate function words (it, this, in, of, these, some) from content words (baby, table, eat, slowly, happy) on the basis of different acoustic properties

  • prefer their mother’s voice to other women’s voices

  • discriminate most sound contrasts used in today’s languages

  • are learning about language while in the womb

• By one year of age, infants…

  • only make contrasts present in their own language

    • Example: in Hindi, there are two “d” sounds à these are discriminated in all newborn infants and in Hindi 8-month-olds but not by English-speaking 8-month-olds.

    • Look to the mouth when a cup is raised, look to the ear when an (old-style) phone is raised à social knowledge

• What accounts for these abilities? Innate or Early Learning

Language Acquisition - Theory

• Nativism:

  • Noam Chomsky: was a nativist à believed certain aspects of language (e.g., grammar) were innate because of the poverty of the stimulus (the input available to the child was insufficient to be learnable).

  • Believed in a universal grammar à all languages share certain principles of grammar, and these are innate, allowing children to master grammar by 3 years.

• Learning theory (behaviourism) argued that parents reward children for grammatical utterances, and punish them for ungrammatical utterances.

  • But, parents don’t do this.

• Renee Baillargeon: social knowledge (Theory of Mind) is innate

• Chomsky: innate grammatical structures

• Research: can’t identify grammatical structures common to different languages

• Rather than reinforcement and punishment …

• Today, Learning Theorists argue that:

  • language can be learned using general learning mechanisms such as statistical learning à learning of patterns

  • Language is predictable

Statistical Learning - Grammar

• Grammatical categories occur in predictable positions in sentences à frequent frames

• Verb “You _ it” put, see, did, want, fix, turned, get, got, …

• Noun “The _ and” tractor, horse, shark, roof, zoo, top, tiger, …

• These frames occur reliably in child input (Mintz, 2003) à help children learn about grammar

• The brain is specialised for statistical learning which assists language learning

Statistical Learning - Segmentation and Word Recognition

• Statistical learning allows the identification of a ‘word’

• Breaks in the speech stream are often found within words – how does a baby recognise what is a ‘word’?

• 8-month-olds

  • Continuous, synthesised speech stream

    • four “words”: tupiro, golabu, padoti, and bidaku

    • words in random order for two minutes

  • Only cues to word boundaries à transitional probabilities between syllable pairs

    • tupi ro golabu …

    • “pi” always follows “tu” à probability = 1.00

    • “go” follows “ro” 1/3rd of time ("ro" also followed by “pa” and “bi”) à probability = .33

    • infant more likely to learn “tu pi” than “ro go”

    • “mum my” or “da ddy” ….. not “mum ddy” or “da my”

  • Then present novel words (e.g., pitugo) and old words

  • Infants prefer novel words (turn head towards speaker)

  • So, the stimulus is not so impoverished after all!

Statistical Learning - Newborns

• Teinonen et al. (2009)

  • Infants were newborn.

  • Infants were asleep.

  • Listened to nonsense syllable speech stream as in Saffran et al. (1996) for 15 minutes.

  • The infant wakes up

    • listen to string of nonsense syllables for 45 minutes.

    • contains old words and new words.

    • measure brain activity (electrical activity) during 45 minutes.

  • Infants’ brains respond differently to old and new words.

• Conclusion

  • Even when an infant is newborn and asleep, they use familiarity to group together sounds into words.

Impaired Statistical Learning

• Specific Language Impairment (SLI):

  • Use short sentences, have small vocabularies, word-finding problems, difficulty learning new words.

  • about 50% go on to experience reading difficulties and develop dyslexia.

• Statistical Learning Difficulties?

  • If statistical learning is central to language learning à should be worse statistical learning in individuals who have worse language.

• Evans et al. (2009)

  • Tested children aged 5 to 14 years à (a) typically developing, (b) SLI.

  • Children drew while they listened in the background to: (a) nonsense syllables for 21 min, (b) nonsense syllables for 42 min, (a) tones (e.g. DFE, ADB) for 42 min.

  • Children were asked which of two combinations they had heard previously while drawing.

  • Do SLI children have specific difficulties with language stimuli, or general difficulties with statistical learning?

Patterns and SLI

• Both Groups of Children:

  • Within each group, those who were better at a statistical learning task with words were better on a measure of language ability.

• Conclusions:

  1. Typically developing children are good at learning about patterns in syllables and tones.

  2. Children with SLI have general difficulties learning about patterns in syllables and tones.

  3. Better statistical learning à better language ability.

• Ren et al. (2023, Developmental Psychology)

  • Statistical Learning, Language Acquisition and Reading

  • Meta-analysis for relation between Statistical Learning (SL) and language-related outcomes, and between SL and reading-related outcomes.

  • Results revealed a significant, moderate relation between SL and language-related outcomes, r = .236, p < .001, and a significant, moderate relation between SL and reading-related outcomes, r = .239, p < .001

Learning and SL - Summary

• Statistical learning assists (1) grammar acquisition and (2) word segmentation à key components of language acquisition.

• Statistical learning allows learning of language à don’t need to posit innate knowledge!

Statistical Learning and Social Knowledge

• Baldwin et al. (2001, Child Development)

  • Two videos … Action stops: when rug is grasped or mid-bend

• Some posit that infants have an innate theory of mind à understanding that people have goals, desires, beliefs (internal experiences).

• Alternative: Infants’ statistical learning allows them to learn about patterns in behaviour.

The Importance of Behaviour Learning

• Videos: Infants look longer at mid-action sequence (left-hand video) than the completed sequence (right-hand video).

• But nothing inherently more interesting about the mid-action final frame if not shown in sequence à don’t look longer at mid-action frame if shown in isolation compared to end-of-action frame.

• Interpretation:

  • Don’t need to posit an innate social understanding.

  • Infants learn to predict patterns in behaviour: unusual to stop action mid-sequence.

  • Later, they work out that there are mental states behind our behaviour à we have goals, desires, beliefs, etc.

Repetition and vocabularly

• Ruffman et al. (2023):

  • 54 children aged 6 to 24 months

• Repeated Behaviors Per Hour Examples:

  • Folding washing, washing dishes, drinking from a cup, pushing a car back and forth, …

• Correlation: Repeated Behaviours and Vocabulary

  • Repeated Behaviors correlate with Non-Mental State Vocabulary and Mental State Vocabulary

• Why do repeated behaviours correlate with mental state words?

  • Sad, happy, want, like, love, …

  • These terms are associated with various behaviours

• The child’s survival depends on learning about events in the world so they can predict outcomes, and understand why people do things.

Statistical Learning Conclusions:

• Some (Chomsky) posit that aspects of language (e.g., grammar) are innate.

• Some posit that infants’ theory of mind is innate.

• But maybe all that is innate is our ability to learn about patterns in …

  • language: grammar, word

  • behaviour

  • etc

• there doesn’t seem to be a lot going on in a baby’s brains, but there is more than is immediately apparent

Parenting Style

• Four broad types of parenting

• One type, authoritative parenting, has the best outcomes

• Benefits are widespread!

• Better (more sensitive) parenting can be successfully trained

Dimensions of Parenting Style

• Parenting Style is Assessed on Two Dimensions

  • Warmth – Parent takes time to explain why – Provides encouragement – Parent is involved in the child’s life

  • Control – Parent sets limits – Parent monitors child’s whereabouts

Parenting Styles

• Four Categories

  • Authoritative – high warmth, high control

  • Authoritarian – low warmth, high control

  • Permissive – high warmth, low control

  • Uninvolved – low warmth, low control

Consequence of Differing Styles on Children

• Authoritative

  • Most positive outcomes

  • Children self-confident

  • Children self-controlled

  • Better success in school

  • Greater social functioning

  • Fewer problems with the law

• Authoritarian

  • Children poorer self-reliance

  • Children poorer self-esteem

  • May be anxious, withdrawn, and unhappy

  • May be angry and defiant

• Permissive

  • Children poorer school performance

  • Greater deviance

  • Good social competence

  • Self-confident

  • Greater difficulties with impulse control

• Uninvolved

  • Children poorer school performance

  • Greater deviance

  • Poorer social competence

  • Poorer self-esteem

Meta-Analysis of Correlational Behaviours

• Hoeve et al. (2009, meta-analysis): Correlations with Deliquency

Harm - Authoritarian style

• Children more likely to be unhealthy eaters (Arredondo et al., 2006)

• Children more likely to be obese

  • High pressure to eat good foods results in less eating of good foods and more eating of bad foods (Ventura & Birch, 2008)

• Children more likely to be insecurely attached to mother (Karavsilis et al., 2003)

• Children more likely to be overtly aggressive (Hart et al., 1998)

• Children and adolescents more likely to engage in relational aggression (Kawabata et al., 2011)

• Worse coping and greater anxiety in adolescence (Wolfradt et al., 2003)

• Adolescents more likely to smoke (Chassin et al., 2005)

Cause of Differences in Approach

• Parenting Style Can Be Predicted Before a Child is Born

  • Accounts for 40-45% of the variance.

  • Predicted by how parents feel about themselves

  • Predicted by the quality of relationship with own parents.

  • Predicted by parents’ roles in their families of origin

• Parenting Behaviour is Affected by Life Stressors

  • Poverty

  • Unemployment

  • Divorce

Best Practice and Approach

• What Sorts of Parenting Help Kids?

  • Induction methods that include explanation and child involvement in setting goals and consequences à increase in morality, cooperativeness

  • Time out, removal of reinforcers (e.g., losing access to computer)

  • Distraction (especially for younger children)

  • Model positive behaviours and reinforce them in children

  • Ignoring some negative behaviours (e.g., scatalogical talk at the dinner table)

  • Anger management for parents

  • Helping children take responsibility for their actions (punishment versus responding to consequences – e.g., pay for breaking a window)

  • Reasonable expectations:

    • Parents often use extreme measures because they assume too much of their children

Inflence of Genetics from Children

• Child Characteristics Also Influence Parenting Style

  • Parenting of identical twins is more similar than parenting of fraternal twins

  • Parents of difficult children may become more controlling and less warm as a consequence of the challenges their child offers

  • Children at genetic risk for antisocial behaviour elicit more negative parenting than those not at risk (adoption study)

Influence of Maternal sensitivity

• Braungart-Rieker et al. (2001, Child Development):

  • Maternal sensitivity at 4 mos. predicted secure bond of infant to mother at 1 year.

  • Infant affect regulation at 4 mos. was related to mother sensitivity at 4 months

  • So maternal sensitivity and subsequent mother-child bond are partially due to infant temperament.

• Bakermans-Kranenburg et al. (2003, Psychological Bulletin)

  • Examined 70 parent intervention studies providing access to community services, information (how to touch baby, video feedback of how to be sensitive to baby)

  • Interventions enhanced (a) sensitive parenting and (b) mother-child bond.

  • Interventions that enhanced parental sensitivity most, also enhanced mother-child bond the most.

• Parent Training Can Have Long-Term Effects

  • Cowan and Cowan (2001): 16-week discussion group on effective parenting (children 5 years) Þ positive effects in 6-year follow-up (school adjustment and academic achievement)

Modern Society for Parents

• Prison in the United States

  • Large emphasis on punishment in addition to rehabilitation

  • Highest incarceration rate of any country in world

    • 1 out of every 151 people in prison in the U.S.

  • Cost = $80,000,000,000 ($80 billion) à 60.61/person

Prisons - Factors and issues

• Getting tough on crime. Prison in the United States

• Prison in New Zealand

  • 1 in 142 Māori in prison

  • 1 in 808 non-Māori in prison

  • Why?

    • Māori sent to prison when non-Māori not sent to prison for the same crime à prejudice

    • Poverty

• Prison in New Zealand: Prejudice

  • Māori over European.

• Poverty

  • Conclusion: Crime occurs where people live in poverty

  • Reduce child abuse and crime?

    • Reduce poverty

Norway - Alternative

• Prison in Norway

  • Overhauled prison system in 1990s à emphasised rehabilitation rather than punishment

    • 1/2000 people in prison in Norway

    • Cost = 48.79 per person

    • Officers rather than guards

    • Officers are role models, coaches and mentors to prisoners

    • Training takes between 2 and 3 years

    • The intent is the restriction of liberty (freedom), but the prisoner has all other rights included (even the right to vote)

      • 60% are “closed” à walls and fences around prison
        History:

• 1970: Abolition of forced labour

• 1975: Abolition of juvenile delinquency centres

• 1990s: focus on rehabilitation

Statistics - Comparison

• US: 1/151 in prison; Norway: 1/2000 in prison

• US: Cost per Citizen Imprisonment

• Recidivism Rate (2 years)

  • Norway much lower rate of Recidivism Rate (2 years) then USA and NZ

• Norway versus Canada

  • Focused on rehabilitation

Effect of Parenting - Criminals

• US prisons control (incarcerate) and punish (restrict rights, rewards)

• Norwegian prisons control (incarcerate) but do so with respect for inmates and rehabilitate (discussion, mentoring)

• But this is exactly the same for parenting styles with children!

  • Norwegian prisons ≃ authoritative parenting

  • U.S. prisons ≃ authoritarian parenting

• Authoritarian parenting doesn’t work, and neither do U.S./NZ/UK prisons!

  • What other policies have not worked with offenders? à policies with a focus on punishment and authoritarian control!

    • Death sentence

    • Boot camps

• Koehler et al. (2012): Examined programs for young offenders in Europe

  • Conclusion: “Cognitive-behavioural and behavioral treatments showed larger effects than other types of programs. Non-behaviorally-oriented programs revealed no significant positive effect, whereas deterrence- and supervision-based interventions even resulted in slightly (although not significantly) increased recidivism. These findings are in accordance with North American research.”

• For boot camps, there are at least three possible explanations.

  • First, they appeal to politicians who want to appear tough on crime, while also saying they are encouraging rehabilitation options.

  • Second, boot camps seem to have a strong appeal to common sense: people want to believe structure and military discipline can turn around young people's lives, and this belief outweighs contradicting evidence.

  • Third boot camps can take different forms, so evidence of their ineffectiveness can be avoided by claiming, as the minister has, that improvements will be made this time.

• Comparison Death Penalty Versus No Death Penalty:

  • No change to trend

• Conclusion

  • Coercive (authoritarian) parenting does not produce good outcomes

  • Coercive approaches to misbehaviour (e.g., prisons, youth offenders, murderers) do not produce good outcomes à they don’t deter bad behaviour

  • Children and adults respond in similar ways to how they are treated

  • What works best is treating others with respect and dignity, discussing things

  • Control is warranted, but tough love and tough on crime produce work outcomes – they simply don’t work

  • Will discussion work with everyone? à No, but it’s more effective than coercion

Abuse - Focus

• Ministry of Justice, NZ:

  • Focus: “Child abuse in the home can include psychological, physical and sexual abuse and neglect”

Explanation with Focus

• Physical Abuse illegal in NZ

  • Illegal to smack a child in NZ, but not considered physical abuse

  • Smacking: open hand

  • What is physical abuse?

    • Hitting: closed hand or hitting with a solid object

    • Beating: repeated hitting

    • Shaking

    • Burning

    • Pinching

    • Hair pulling

    • Biting

    • Kicking