Wk 4 responses

Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates by Day 5 to stimulate more meaningful and interactive discourse in the discussion forum. In addition, respond to classmates (and/or the instructor, if applicable) who replied to your initial post by Day 7. Your responses must demonstrate a sophisticated understanding or application of the concepts covered in Week 4.

At least two of your responses should be a minimum of 150 words each.

The following general suggestions may be useful as you craft your replies:

Ask clarifying or thought provoking questions.
Provide personal or professional examples that further illustrate relevant social psychological concepts identified in your classmate’s post.
Supply additional information that might influence your classmate’s interpretation. For example, recommend resources that further support their position or identify possible alternative explanations.
Relate the content in your classmate’s post to that of your own or another classmate’s initial contribution to this discussion.

Annette Hooker:
As an consultant for a substance abuse counselor, I have been aware of the recent hike in young children abusing drugs and alcohol at a very young age. When it comes to drugs and alcohol abuse among our youth it has become a big problem that is facing a high rate of children within our community. As a matter of fact, underage drinking and drug used is the leading public health problem in this country alone. Yearly there are about 5,000 adolescence who are under 21 years of age have died due to the fact he or she are underage drinking. Which, 1,900 of these death is from car accidents, 1,600 are from murder, 300 are from kids killing themselves. Even though we know all the latest statistics it is continuing to be a problem among young people. As youth goes from adolescence to young adulthood he or she may experience noticeable physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. Developmental changes such as puberty and increasing independence, have been connected to alcohol and drug abuse in our young people (the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcoholism, 2006). In Drugs and young people substance abuse in our youth and teens could create a larger problem than in older adults. This may be due to the fact that young children brain is not develop like a grown person brain. As we learn a long time ago, the mind of children could be more persuadable to substance abuse and dependency than a grown person brains (MedlinePlus, 2016).

When discussing a target program to address the problem of substance abuse and the recent statistics on drug and alcohol use amongst younger and younger children. I believe that the program should start within the schools and that is because majority of all school system have counselor where children who have problem at home or with themselves he or she knows that they can go to a counselor and get help for their problem. Basically, start a school – based prevention program that target young people who have an issue with substance. The program will build on the knowledge of substance abuse as they grow and learn, there are several factors cause to substance abuse, and there is no one solution that schools can do to prevent it. But, there are a several of tasks that schools can do that can help to create the problem for students to make healthy choices about their life and how to put an end to their used of substance abuse (alcohol and drug use). Also, the program can teach them all the side effect use of substance can have on their body and brain at such an early age. Among the skills that are the most important in encouraging healthy choices are decision making, setting goals, self-control, and bystander intervention. As like majority of the school now days they do drug screening on randomly children who participate in sports, but I think it should go beyond just kids who playing sport because they’re a lot of kids that don’t play sport and abuse drugs. This kind of program is called School-Based Drug-Screening Programs this is a program that was started in 2002, that the supreme court allow schools to do nonspecific drug substance abuse test on school children who are in junior and high school.

The National Institute of Alcohol and Alcoholism, (2006). Underage Drinking – Why Do Adolescents Drink, what are the… Retrieved from https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov>publication
MedlinePlus (2006). Drugs and Young People: MedlinePlus. Retrieved from https://medlineplus.gov › Health Topics

Paul Dill:
PSY 610 – Week 4 Discussion – The Consultant

As the consultant to this law firm, I was retained to provide insight on observing and evaluating the behavior of potential jury members with the end result of achieving more favorable trial outcomes.

As we know, a jury’s duty is to review and evaluate all evidence that is presented to it at trial and arrive at a decision of guilt (or innocence), sometimes issue sentencing in criminal trials and, in the case of civil trials, make determinations of degrees of liability and award damages. All of these actions are done through collective deliberations on the part of the members of those juries. One thing to bear in mind is that some juries, or the individual juror, can and do fail at the use of complete and rational analysis methods. The stresses and other psychological processes will inevitably lead to the use of mental “shortcuts” to arrive at what might be considered not the best final verdict. As individuals, jurors are also extremely susceptible to the influence of the collective or group. This is particular true when the juror is faced with a time limitation or deadline imposed by the judge (Lee, 2014). Probably the worst-case scenario is the deadlocked or “hung” jury.

During the jury deliberation period, the jury will go through three phases or stages. The first is the “orientation” phase where the foreperson is elected by the group and the various laws and legal procedures are explained to the jurors. It’s also in this phase that their collective “style” develops. They can either be verdict driven or evidence driven. The second phase is the “open conflict” phase where the jury begins the process of considering what’s been presented to them by both sides and actually begin arguing among themselves and attempting to persuade those jurors that are not in agreement with them. The last phase is the “reconciliation” phase. This may or may not occur but, if it does, it will occur after the verdict is reached. At this point the jurors will be seeking to rationalize their respective satisfaction with the outcome (Thimsen, Bornstein, Miller, 2009).

We should remember that group dynamics are at work within the jury. This is especially true during the “open conflict” and “reconciliation” phases. Two specific dynamics are in play. These are “normative influences” and “informational influences.” Put simply, “normative influences” occur when a dissenting juror conforms to the group because the group has established a norm with which to be complied. At an even more basic level, there is the desire to be liked and accepted by the group, in this case the collective jury. “Informational influences” occur when the jurors actually are convinced of the accuracy of the information (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004).

As mentioned before, the worst-case scenario for jurors is the deadlocked jury. If or when this occurs, and the judge issues an “Allen” charge (also known as the “dynamite” charge), where the court is strongly encouraging the jury to reach a verdict. Since the “dynamite” charge is meant to “blast” the deadlocked jurors into making a decision, it is going to create a high level of stress to arrive at a verdict. Jurors will fall back to allowing the majority to make a final decision, which may not be in the firm’s best interest.

To avoid possible negative outcomes, when the firms’ attorneys are in “voir dire” (selection process), they should attempt to ask focused questions to the potential jurors, as allowed by the court. The topics should address the potential juror’s tendencies to be influenced by others, their independence in terms of decision-making, and how do they handle time-related stress. These questions are intended to identify potential issues for prospective jurors in the group setting. The attorneys should also formulate questions that could identify tendencies for stereotyping and other biases that could influence the interactions of the potential juror with the collective jury as well as the outcome of trial.

References:

Cialdini, R., & Goldstein, N. (2014). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual

Review of Psychology. Vol. 55. Pp. 591-621. 31p.

Lee, S. (2014). Plea Bargaining: On the selection of jury trials. Economic Theory. Vol. 57. Issue

Pp. 59-88. 30p.

Society for Personality and Social Psychology. (2017). Social influence: Conformity and the

normative influence. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/UT_IYG95VM0.

Thimsen, S., Bornstein, B., Miller, M. (2009). The dynamite charge: Too explosive for its own

good? Valparaiso University Law Review. Vol. 44, Issue 1. Pp. 93-124. 32p.