This Research Report presents an initial attempt to apply the theory of counterfactual thinking to study the cognitive processes that underlie judgments of negligence. Subjects reviewed a summary of an appellate case involving a work accident and listed all the ways in which the accident could have been undone (mutated). Participants' evaluations of the defendant's behavior were influenced by the ease of mutation of the negligent act and other mutations of the defendant's behavior, but not by the number of mutations of the plaintiffs conduct. Exploratory path analysis suggested that counterfactual thinking may have its greatest impact not as a direct influence on verdicts and damages, but rather as an indirect influence impacting verdicts through lower level judgments about the normality of the defendant's behavior and the standard of care. T h e results also suggest that contrary to the law, subjects base their negligence verdicts on assessments of normal care along with due care.Negligence is a common theory that plaintiffs use to bring causes of action in tort. Although the prima facie case of ordinary negligence is well settled law, the cognitive processes by which people evaluate negligence claims are not well understood. The purpose of the present research was to use social cognitive theory (Markus & Zajonc, 1985) to inquire about how people integrate facts to make judgments about liability.Richard L. Wiener, Ph.D., M.L.S., is a professor of psychology and public policy; Maurido Gaborit, PhD, is an assistant profasor of psychology; Christine C. Pritchard is a graduate student currently pursuing a Master's Degree in psychology; Erin M. McDonough, M.S., is an advanced graduate student in social psychology; Caryn R. Staebler, M.S., is working on her dissertation in organizational psychology; Deane C. Wiley, M.S., is an advanced graduate student working on his dissertation in psychology and law; and Kristen S. Goldkamp, M.S., is an advanced graduate student working on her disserradon in psychology and law; all authors are at Saint Louis Univeaity. Address reprint requests and correspondence to Qr. Wiener, St.

The United States judiaary assumes jurors obey the law as it is charged to them in the trial judge's instructions. This paper contends that jurors' comprehension of the law results from an active intelligence which makes available alternative decision rules giving rise to the power of juries to nullify instructions. To study the compliance assumption, we presented to mock jurors pattern jury instructions along with summaries of testimonies from a rape trial. Four times during the trial we administered to participants measures of their attributions of defendant responsibility, judgments about the legal elements of the case, and verdicts. Multiple regressions conducted with data from separate subsamples and with separate questionnaire administrations revealed that a) verdicts were based on attributions independent of the jury instructions, b) individual differences in life experiences predicted the degree to which decision makers used their attributions, and c) the more practiced partiapants were at applying the jury instructions the more heavily they weighed their own attributions and less heavily the judgments required by the law. We concluded that comprehension alone cannot predict the likelihood that jurors will comply with the law. Therefore, the assumption that jurors follow the law needs to be more carefully considered.

It has been hypothesized that sexual conflict is a causal factor in the development of obsessive compulsive disorder. This study investigated the relationship between obsessive compulsive disorder and variables related to the individual's sexual history, present life, sexual satisfaction, and marital adjustment. Of inpatient admissions, 363 who met criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and depressive disorder completed a standard history questionnaire and the Marital Adjustment Test. Findings showed that obsessive compulsive individuals cannot be distinguished from either depressive or panic disordered groups by a particular sexual history. Future studies should use measures that do not rely on patient self-report.

It has been hypothesized that parents of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder exhibit specific traits. 320 consecutive inpatient admissions who met criteria for OCD, depression, and panic disorder checked a list of adjectives to describe their parents. Patients with OCD were 1) less likely to perceive their mothers as disorganized than depressives, 2) more likely to perceive their mothers as overprotective than depressives and 3) less likely to perceive their fathers as demanding than patients with panic.