A diversity of opinion surrounds the institution of plea bargaining. In large metropolitan areas ... more A diversity of opinion surrounds the institution of plea bargaining. In large metropolitan areas many participants in the criminal justice system would agree that plea bargaining is a result of circumstance rather than choice. In some cities, criminal caseload has doubled in the last ten years while available judicial resources have remained constant.1 In the face of this administrative crisis, increasing reliance on plea bargaining, often referred to as plea negotiation, has enabled the system to remain functional. 2 Indeed, statistics suggest a complete dependence. Roughly ninety percent of all defendants convicted of crime in state and federal courts plead guilty rather than go to trial.3 While this figure does not specify the number of guilty pleas that were in fact negotiated, the prevalence of the plea bargaining process is apparent. Even the American Bar Association, by attempting to improve the procedural safeguards in plea bargaining,4 has implicitly conceded its necessity....
ABSTRACT This volume revisits an issue in the Nebraska Symposium series that first considered cul... more ABSTRACT This volume revisits an issue in the Nebraska Symposium series that first considered cultural aspects of behavior (the 1989 Symposium on "Cross-Cultural Perspectives"). Since then, the bulk of US American psychology has belatedly discovered the important role that cultural factors may play in the development and display of human behavior. In this volume, there is a strong emphasis on US American concepts and findings, often contrasted with "Asian" concepts and findings. All the chapters are devoted to understanding some aspects of the self in relation to these two cultural categories. Only one chapter (by Poortinga) stands back from this narrow focus to consider broader issues, and applies the critical insights that result from this perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT Indian and American respondents were presented vignettes that portrayed two target indiv... more ABSTRACT Indian and American respondents were presented vignettes that portrayed two target individuals, one meritorious and one financially needy. The respondents' task was to allocate a resource between the targets in the fairest way. In half of the vignettes the resource was positive (bonus money); in the other half it was negative (reduction in salary). Every combination of sex-of-target was used. Results showed significant positive and negative effects in both cultures, such that respondents gave preference to the needy target significantly more in the negative than in the positive situation. Indians, in general, gave preference to the needy over the meritorious more than did the Americans.
International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice
The effects of abuse and neglect on children and on society are well documented, and suggest that... more The effects of abuse and neglect on children and on society are well documented, and suggest that prevention must be among the highest of priorities. Current child welfare agencies are limited in how effective they can be in child abuse prevention because of being overwhelmed by the caseload and being part of rigid bureaucracies. The Strong Communities initiative was successful in overcoming these limitations by employing a grassroots approach that gave their workers a great deal of freedom in their efforts to mobilize communities around the norm that children should be safe. This article reports details about what the workers actually did to accomplish this goal. Findings show that the workers were successful in engaging multiple community sectors, e.g., faith groups, community/neighborhood organizations, educational venues, civic organizations, and fire departments. Results also show that the activity within these sectors varied considerably over time and across different communities. These results suggest that those planning or working in grassroots, neighborhood-based child abuse prevention initiatives must develop relationships with, or create, a variety of community sectors, be persistent in their contacts with those sectors, and most importantly, be prepared for the activity in those sectors to wax and wane over time and be different in different communities. In short, one must continuously be creative and employ a great deal of flexibility and patience when doing this type of work.
ABSTRACT Research on how invasion of personal distance affects subjects' impressions of m... more ABSTRACT Research on how invasion of personal distance affects subjects' impressions of male and female invaders is somewhat contradictory. Jones and Davis's theory of correspondent inferences suggests that the context of choice in which a behavior is enacted is an important determinant of how the perceiver evaluates the actor. To test whether choice context would significantly affect subjects' evaluations of invaders, 48 subjects were spatially invaded by confederates in three types of intentional contexts, and their evaluations of the invaders were obtained. Results showed that choice context was a significant determinant of subjects' evaluations, and that as the invasion appeared more intentional and personnally directed, male invaders were evaluated more negatively and female invaders more positively.
1. UMKC Law Rev. 1992 Summer;60(4):665-715. Allocating medical resources and Medicaid: raising th... more 1. UMKC Law Rev. 1992 Summer;60(4):665-715. Allocating medical resources and Medicaid: raising the issues from a psychological jurisprudential perspective. Campbell E, Murphy-Berman V, Berman J. PMID: 11659951 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] MeSH Terms: ...
The present research examined the relationships among multiple client characteristics, multiple t... more The present research examined the relationships among multiple client characteristics, multiple treatments, and multiple outcomes in an alcoholism setting. Results showed that with regard to employment and abstinence outcome measures, inpatient therapy was better than outpatient therapy for clients experiencing low life instability, low problem severity, and a high socioeconomic status. For clients with the opposite pattern of characteristics, outpatient therapy produced more positive results on the same outcome measures. Results also showed that regardless of client characteristics, inpatients improved more with regard to social activities and outpatients improved more with regard to legal convictions and accidents.
... The fourth prediction was that there would be an interaction between just world and social wo... more ... The fourth prediction was that there would be an interaction between just world and social worth, and just world and awareness/unawareness of risk. ...
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 1991
Negative attitudes towards people with AIDS are still prevalent. While previous research has inve... more Negative attitudes towards people with AIDS are still prevalent. While previous research has investigated how these negative attitudes are related to various demographic variables, this research examined how they might differ cross-culturally, and how they are related to general beliefs about a just world, one's preference to distribute resources on the basis of merit or need, and one's health locus of control. Undergraduates from the U.S. (N=145) and West Germany (N=108) responded to a questionnaire which measured these dimensions. The most negative attitudes towards people with AIDS were found among males who were external in health locus of control, had more negative attitudes towards allocating resources on the basis of need, and had positive attitudes towards allocating on the basis of merit. As compared to U.S. respondents, German respondents indicated less of a just world view, less preference for merit, more preference for need as an allocation strategy, and more ext...
Summary.-The present paper reports the results of two studies using different methods, different ... more Summary.-The present paper reports the results of two studies using different methods, different measures of sexual permissiveness, and different measures of specific self-esteem. Both studies yielded a positive relationship between self-esteem and permissiveness for ...
A 40-item short form of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory is developed to assess the exp... more A 40-item short form of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory is developed to assess the experience of the facilitative conditions in the supervisory relationship. There are five scales, Regard (10 items), Unconditionally (5 items), Empathic Understanding (10 items), Congruence (10 items), and Willingness to be Known (5 items). Reliabilities are good and comparable to those of longer versions. Scale intercorrelations were moderate to high, with highest correlations between Empathic Understanding and Congruence. There was one principal factor. Congruence loaded most heavily on this factor, followed by Empathy and Regard.
A diversity of opinion surrounds the institution of plea bargaining. In large metropolitan areas ... more A diversity of opinion surrounds the institution of plea bargaining. In large metropolitan areas many participants in the criminal justice system would agree that plea bargaining is a result of circumstance rather than choice. In some cities, criminal caseload has doubled in the last ten years while available judicial resources have remained constant.1 In the face of this administrative crisis, increasing reliance on plea bargaining, often referred to as plea negotiation, has enabled the system to remain functional. 2 Indeed, statistics suggest a complete dependence. Roughly ninety percent of all defendants convicted of crime in state and federal courts plead guilty rather than go to trial.3 While this figure does not specify the number of guilty pleas that were in fact negotiated, the prevalence of the plea bargaining process is apparent. Even the American Bar Association, by attempting to improve the procedural safeguards in plea bargaining,4 has implicitly conceded its necessity....
ABSTRACT This volume revisits an issue in the Nebraska Symposium series that first considered cul... more ABSTRACT This volume revisits an issue in the Nebraska Symposium series that first considered cultural aspects of behavior (the 1989 Symposium on "Cross-Cultural Perspectives"). Since then, the bulk of US American psychology has belatedly discovered the important role that cultural factors may play in the development and display of human behavior. In this volume, there is a strong emphasis on US American concepts and findings, often contrasted with "Asian" concepts and findings. All the chapters are devoted to understanding some aspects of the self in relation to these two cultural categories. Only one chapter (by Poortinga) stands back from this narrow focus to consider broader issues, and applies the critical insights that result from this perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT Indian and American respondents were presented vignettes that portrayed two target indiv... more ABSTRACT Indian and American respondents were presented vignettes that portrayed two target individuals, one meritorious and one financially needy. The respondents' task was to allocate a resource between the targets in the fairest way. In half of the vignettes the resource was positive (bonus money); in the other half it was negative (reduction in salary). Every combination of sex-of-target was used. Results showed significant positive and negative effects in both cultures, such that respondents gave preference to the needy target significantly more in the negative than in the positive situation. Indians, in general, gave preference to the needy over the meritorious more than did the Americans.
International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice
The effects of abuse and neglect on children and on society are well documented, and suggest that... more The effects of abuse and neglect on children and on society are well documented, and suggest that prevention must be among the highest of priorities. Current child welfare agencies are limited in how effective they can be in child abuse prevention because of being overwhelmed by the caseload and being part of rigid bureaucracies. The Strong Communities initiative was successful in overcoming these limitations by employing a grassroots approach that gave their workers a great deal of freedom in their efforts to mobilize communities around the norm that children should be safe. This article reports details about what the workers actually did to accomplish this goal. Findings show that the workers were successful in engaging multiple community sectors, e.g., faith groups, community/neighborhood organizations, educational venues, civic organizations, and fire departments. Results also show that the activity within these sectors varied considerably over time and across different communities. These results suggest that those planning or working in grassroots, neighborhood-based child abuse prevention initiatives must develop relationships with, or create, a variety of community sectors, be persistent in their contacts with those sectors, and most importantly, be prepared for the activity in those sectors to wax and wane over time and be different in different communities. In short, one must continuously be creative and employ a great deal of flexibility and patience when doing this type of work.
ABSTRACT Research on how invasion of personal distance affects subjects' impressions of m... more ABSTRACT Research on how invasion of personal distance affects subjects' impressions of male and female invaders is somewhat contradictory. Jones and Davis's theory of correspondent inferences suggests that the context of choice in which a behavior is enacted is an important determinant of how the perceiver evaluates the actor. To test whether choice context would significantly affect subjects' evaluations of invaders, 48 subjects were spatially invaded by confederates in three types of intentional contexts, and their evaluations of the invaders were obtained. Results showed that choice context was a significant determinant of subjects' evaluations, and that as the invasion appeared more intentional and personnally directed, male invaders were evaluated more negatively and female invaders more positively.
1. UMKC Law Rev. 1992 Summer;60(4):665-715. Allocating medical resources and Medicaid: raising th... more 1. UMKC Law Rev. 1992 Summer;60(4):665-715. Allocating medical resources and Medicaid: raising the issues from a psychological jurisprudential perspective. Campbell E, Murphy-Berman V, Berman J. PMID: 11659951 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] MeSH Terms: ...
The present research examined the relationships among multiple client characteristics, multiple t... more The present research examined the relationships among multiple client characteristics, multiple treatments, and multiple outcomes in an alcoholism setting. Results showed that with regard to employment and abstinence outcome measures, inpatient therapy was better than outpatient therapy for clients experiencing low life instability, low problem severity, and a high socioeconomic status. For clients with the opposite pattern of characteristics, outpatient therapy produced more positive results on the same outcome measures. Results also showed that regardless of client characteristics, inpatients improved more with regard to social activities and outpatients improved more with regard to legal convictions and accidents.
... The fourth prediction was that there would be an interaction between just world and social wo... more ... The fourth prediction was that there would be an interaction between just world and social worth, and just world and awareness/unawareness of risk. ...
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 1991
Negative attitudes towards people with AIDS are still prevalent. While previous research has inve... more Negative attitudes towards people with AIDS are still prevalent. While previous research has investigated how these negative attitudes are related to various demographic variables, this research examined how they might differ cross-culturally, and how they are related to general beliefs about a just world, one's preference to distribute resources on the basis of merit or need, and one's health locus of control. Undergraduates from the U.S. (N=145) and West Germany (N=108) responded to a questionnaire which measured these dimensions. The most negative attitudes towards people with AIDS were found among males who were external in health locus of control, had more negative attitudes towards allocating resources on the basis of need, and had positive attitudes towards allocating on the basis of merit. As compared to U.S. respondents, German respondents indicated less of a just world view, less preference for merit, more preference for need as an allocation strategy, and more ext...
Summary.-The present paper reports the results of two studies using different methods, different ... more Summary.-The present paper reports the results of two studies using different methods, different measures of sexual permissiveness, and different measures of specific self-esteem. Both studies yielded a positive relationship between self-esteem and permissiveness for ...
A 40-item short form of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory is developed to assess the exp... more A 40-item short form of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory is developed to assess the experience of the facilitative conditions in the supervisory relationship. There are five scales, Regard (10 items), Unconditionally (5 items), Empathic Understanding (10 items), Congruence (10 items), and Willingness to be Known (5 items). Reliabilities are good and comparable to those of longer versions. Scale intercorrelations were moderate to high, with highest correlations between Empathic Understanding and Congruence. There was one principal factor. Congruence loaded most heavily on this factor, followed by Empathy and Regard.
Uploads
Papers by John Berman