There is growing concern about excessive Internet use and whether this can amount to an addiction. In researching this topic, a valid and reliable assessment instrument is essential. In her survey of Internet addiction, Young designed the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), which provides a basis for developments. The IAT has high face validity, but it has not been subjected to systematic psychometric testing. This study sought to replicate and expand Young's survey, and to examine the IAT more systematically. A questionnaire that existed as a Web page was devised, consisting of the IAT and 15 other questions regarding the respondents' demographic information and Internet usage. Participants were recruited through the Internet, yielding 86 valid responses (29 males and 57 females). Factor analysis of the IAT revealed six factors--salience, excessive use, neglecting work, anticipation, lack of control, and neglecting social life. These factors showed good internal consistency and concurrent validity, with salience being the most reliable. Younger and more recent users reported more problems, mainly concerning the neglect of work and social life. We expected interactive Internet functions to be more addictive; however, this was not found to be so. Overall, the IAT is a valid and reliable instrument that may be used in further research on Internet addiction.

The ability to identify emotion in other people is critical to social functioning. In a series of experiments, we explored the relationship between recognition of emotion in ambiguous facial expressions and aggressive thoughts and behavior, both in healthy adults and in adolescent youth at high risk of criminal offending and delinquency. We show that it is possible to experimentally modify biases in emotion recognition to encourage the perception of happiness over anger in ambiguous expressions. This change in perception results in a decrease in self-reported anger and aggression in healthy adults and high-risk youth, respectively, and also in independently rated aggressive behavior in high-risk youth. We obtained similar effects on mood using two different techniques to modify biases in emotion perception (feedback-based training and visual adaptation). These studies provide strong evidence that emotion processing plays a causal role in anger and the maintenance of aggressive behavior.

Purpose. Offender motivation is one specific responsivity variable in offender treatment and motivational interviewing (MI) is commonly used by corrections personnel. Although evidence for the effectiveness of motivational interviewing is accruing overall, a review of MI specifically with offender populations is required.Method. Relevant databases and websites were searched using terms relating to MI with offenders.

There is accruing evidence that offenders who do not complete treatment are at greater risk of recidivism than those who do complete treatment. Profiles of non-completers show them to be high risk of reoffending compared with completers, and differences in reconviction may be explained by these baseline levels. What is unclear is whether non-completion actually increases the risk of reoffending over no treatment at all. The purpose of this review was to examine the recidivism of noncompleters compared with untreated offenders of comparable risk. A systematic search of the literature relating to cognitive Ábehavioural interventions revealed 16 relevant studies describing 17 samples. The mean effect size (d 0/(/0.16) of differences in reoffending between untreated offenders and treatment non-completers suggests that failing to complete treatment is associated with elevated levels of reoffending, with this effect being more pronounced in community samples (d 0/(/0.23) than institutional samples (d 0/ (/0.15). Methodological limitations include poor risk comparability between samples and heterogeneity of non-completers, nevertheless it is possible that treatment non-completion may make some offenders more likely to reoffend.

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BackgroundThere is a concern in the literature that harm from interventions is insufficiently documented in clinical trials in general, and in those assessing psychological treatments in particular. A recent decision by a trial steering committee to stop recruitment into a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a psychological intervention for personality disorder led to an investigation of the recording of harm in trials funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).MethodsThe protocols and final reports of all 82 NIHR trials funded between 1995 and 2013 were examined for the reporting of adverse events. These were subdivided by category of intervention.ResultsNone of the psychological intervention trials mentioned the occurrence of an adverse event in their final report. Trials of drug treatments were more likely to mention adverse events in their protocols compared with those using psychological treatments. When adverse events were mentioned, the protocols of psychological interventions relied heavily on severe adverse events guidelines from the National Research Ethics Service (NRES), which were developed for drug rather than psychological interventions and so may not be appropriate for the latter.ConclusionsThis survey supported the belief that the reporting of adverse events in psychological treatments is weak and the criteria used may not be appropriate. Recommendations are made as to how current practice might be improved.

This special issue contains contributions from leading researchers on the assessment of engagement, effects of engagement and non-engagement on outcomes, offenders' reasons for non-completion of treatment programmes, and the development of a measure of offenders' current concerns and life aspirations. These studies will improve research and practice in offender treatment readiness and engagement, and this could lead to better outcomes in terms of reduced re-offending.

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