Psychologists often are called upon to give their opinion about a legal concept, the insanity plea. Criminal cases that involve the insanity plea consistently receive the attention of the media and of legislators who contemplate restricting the use of the defense, yet there is little nationwide information on the use and possible abuse of the insanity defense. This paper reviews what little is known and suggests that in order to make psychologically and socially responsible decisions, more information is needed on the use and success of the plea.
99 undergraduate women from Japan and 78 women and 54 men from the United States viewed slides of a Japanese woman who either smiled frequently (was shown smiling in 70% of the slides) or infrequently (was shown smiling in 20% of the slides) while displaying either open or closed body positions. Subjects from Japan rated the woman as the most interpersonally attractive when she smiled frequently and expressed closed body positions and the least attractive when she smiled frequently and expressed open body positions. In contrast, college men and women from the United States rated the same model as the most interpersonally attractive when she smiled frequently and expressed open body positions and the least attractive when she smiled infrequently and used closed body positions.
Over the years, various clinicians diagnosed a school‐aged child as mentally retarded, mentally retarded with autistic‐like features, or autistic. A school district sought to place the child locally in a school for mentally retarded children, while the child's parents desired replacement in a residential school that specialized in the education of autistic children. After a due process hearing, the child was placed in a school for autistic children. The case demonstrates the importance of independent mediation and professional assessment in placing handicapped children and examines free appropriate public education in the context of Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District vs. Rowley (1982).
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