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This chapter analyzes the current state of research on the topic of age stereotypes and age discrimination in the workplace. Recognizing the growing importance of age stereotyping research as the workforces of many countries continue to grow older, this chapter defines and differentiates the important concepts used in this field of research (e.g., age stereotyping, ageism, age discrimination). Specific illustrations of age stereotyping are identified, and it is shown how these stereotypes can have negative impacts on both workers and their employers. The relationship between age stereotyping and age discrimination is discussed with reference to recent court cases. A meta-framework that provides guidance for future research is offered to enhance the coordinated growth of research in this field. Finally, specifi c directions for future research and best practices for organizations are identified.

Statutory, judicial, and regulatory law in the United States serves as a model for other countries as regards workplace discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and age. This chapter focuses on the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) and related statutes. Case law related to disparate treatment, adverse impact, and facial discrimination against older workers is surveyed, particularly as relates to hiring and termination of individuals, maximum hiring and retirement, discrimination in health and retirement benefits, and reductions-in-force (RIFs). Recommendations are provided for correcting false ageist attitudes among front-line employers, managers, and supervisors; for conducting fair and efficient performance appraisals of workers of all ages; and for applying a specific strategy for conducting a fair and legal RIF.

Despite their best intentions, practitioners of personality assessment sometimes painfully discover they have paid insufficient attention to what they should or should not have done. This article addresses ways in which personality assessors can anticipate ethical and legal challenges, and, by so doing, avoid them. The American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct is an ethics code that rests on the fundamental requirement for psychologists to be knowledgeable and responsible professionals who respect the rights and dignity of others, show concern for the welfare of their clients and colleagues, and present themselves fairly and honestly to their patients and their communities. Five sequential phases of clinical personality assessment, in each of which lurk some ethical and legal hazards, must be considered: accepting a referral; selecting the test battery; conducting the psychological testing; preparing and presenting a report; and managing case records.

Research has shown aggression toward others is a problem in a subset of military veterans. Predicting this kind of aggression would be immensily helpful in clinical settings. To our knowledge, there currently are no risk assessment tools or screens that have been validated to specifically evaluate acute violence among veterans. This chapter reviews what we do and do not know about violence in veterans so that clinicians who are making decisions about acute violence can be informed by the existing scientific knowledge base. Examining these empirically supported risk and protective factors using a systematic approach may optimize clinical decision making when assessing acute violence in veterans.

Feigned-symptom reports have become of increasing interest in recent years, in part because the results of psychological evaluations are more widely accepted in legal proceedings. This article examines several pertinent issues regarding assessment of malingering, including methodological concerns, base rates of feigning, and coaching to avoid detection. It evaluates several frequently used measures of malingering, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III, Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology, Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test, and Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS). The article provides cutting scores, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive powers at various base rates of feigning. After the SIRS, the feigning scales of the MMPI-2 have the most support for malingering detection, followed by the PAI scales. Generally, all measures reviewed showed greater negative predictive power rates; thus, a two-stage sequential process for malingering detection is discussed.

This article explores how evaluating trait-like resistance with objective personality-assessment instruments can assist therapists in better anticipating, understanding, and responding to their clients' signs of therapeutic resistance. First, it reviews the data regarding gender-influenced attitudes toward psychological treatment, and then presents and discusses specific Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) validity, clinical, and content scales that measure elements of treatment resistance. The article also analyzes clinical and normative data on the Butcher Treatment Planning Inventory, a measure that was created specifically for treatment-planning purposes. Finally, it presents a case example to illustrate specific methods of informing psychotherapy with objective test data.

This chapter explores the meaning of the film Groundhog Day relative to social-psychological elements of boredom. The chapter presents the popular film Groundhog Day featuring actor Bill Murray as a metaphor for American soldiers’ experiences in Iraq. American soldiers and others in Iraq referred to their experience as akin to the film. Groundhog Day is a spatio-temporal displacement film, a comedic love story featuring personal redemption in order for the main character to successfully transform. Groundhog Day—the day—has spiritual and nature roots and represents the transition to springtime. All religions find utility in the film’s leitmotif, and Bill Murray represents a character regularly cast in transitional roles. The chapter highlights direct references to the film from those with experience in Iraq and presents some interpretations of the film itself that are illustrative of the American experience in Iraq. The chapter concludes with some future directions for research by social psychologists and applications for practitioners interested in soldiering, film, and boredom.

This chapter reviews the ways in which children's sometimes limited imaginative abilities hampers their performance as witnesses in court. Children's resistance to unpleasant hypotheticals undermines their apparent understanding of the truth and lies. Their difficulty with recognizing referential ambiguity leads them to sound incoherent or incomprehensible. Better understanding of children's developmental limitations, improved questioning, and objections to developmentally insensitive questions could improve children's performance.

Child maltreatment is a significant global public health problem that impacts children’s health and mental health while young but also can follow them into adulthood, potentially carrying forward patterns of abusive parenting. To effectively manage and eliminate child maltreatment, a uniform definition of abuse and neglect must be developed for proper monitoring of prevalence. Reporting laws and protection of children should be followed with care, and evidence-based prevention strategies and interventions should be disseminated widely. At present, research on treatment of abuse and neglect has produced several models that are scientifically supported and rated as evidence based. Sufficient research has been conducted for the field to practice within the bounds of science. However, further research is needed on implementation of evidence-based treatments.

Correctional environments are unique as settings in which people are confined involuntarily, possibly for very long periods of time, and not for their own welfare. As such they can be very difficult places to endure. Moreover, inmates and staff are exposed to multiple environmental stressors whose effects may be magnified by the time of exposure and the difficulty in avoiding them. Inmates commonly need to cope with lack of privacy, high levels of crowding, isolation from needed human contact, constant high levels of noise, poor lighting conditions (too little in the daytime and too much at night), and little access to nature or nature views. New models of correctional design, with increased direct contact between inmates and staff, and greater control over environmental conditions, have had success in reducing violent behavior in recent decades. A model of environmental determinants of violence is presented that attempts to explain this success.