The present study examined the accuracy of polygraph tests through two types of statistical methods with unknown ground truth. One method evaluated the accuracy based on the rates of agreements between polygraph test results of crime suspects and prosecutors' indictment decisions for them. Those crime suspects were tested with polygraph by the Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea between 2000 and 2004. The other method estimated the accuracy by using the latent class analysis based on the frequency distributions of the polygraph results and indictments during 2006. Excluding cases that were ‘inconclusive’ on the polygraph test, the study showed that the accuracy of the polygraph tests is .914 (SE=.004) for the 2000-2004 data, and .885 (SE=.021) for the 2006 data. With the inclusion of ‘inconclusive’ cases in the 2006 data, the results from the latent class analysis showed the accuracy in the range between .707 and .734 (SE=.027~.031), with false positives between .078 and .087 (SE=.019~.023), and false negatives between .029 and .078 (SE=.010~.023). The probability that the polygraph test correctly classifies subjects appeared to be in the range between .912 and .925 (SE=.013-.016) for those who lie, and in the range between .867 to .955 (SE=.011-.040) for those who tell the truth.
The youth unemployment issue has not shown any improvement in years. The purpose of this study was to observe how employment issues affecting university students influence their life aims, self-efficacy, view of reality, view of the future, and life satisfaction. 239 students from three universities located in Seoul and Gyeonggi province were assessed through the instrument FLL and questions about employment issues, their life aims, life satisfaction and also their employment perspective. A total of 34 items of the FLL were divided through factor analysis into six higher life aims, self-love, family love and interpersonal aims, personal-financial aims, social-public aims, moral aims and political and ideological aims. Using Cluster analysis, three group profiles were found depending on the employment perspective such as a better view of reality, better self-efficacy, and better life satisfaction. A t-test was conducted in order to compare the two groups classified according to favorable or unfavorable employment perspectives. No significant differences existed between the groups in the perception of youth unemployment or in social-demographic factors, such as gender, age, and academic year. However, in life aims, the unfavorable group showed significantly higher interest in the domains of family love and interpersonal aims, personal -financial aims, and social-public aims than the favorable perspective group. Conversely, this group showed a significantly greater negative view of reality in most life domains, as it evaluated that its aims are more poorly achieved than the comparable group. Also, the unfavorable perspective group showed a lesser degree of self-efficacy in most life domains and the same in the category of life satisfaction, i.e., lesser satisfaction in all life domains except for family love, and moral aims. However, no significant difference existed between the groups in the view of the future. The results were discussed in relation to other social-cognitive factors for life satisfaction found in preceding studies.
The present study examined the overall receptivity of community members to migrant wives in Korea. A total of 23 community members from two regions, Ansan, an urban area and Youngam, a rural area, were selected for the interview based on their prior experience with migrant wives. Data were collected via a semi-structured interview method. The participants provided their personal feelings and thoughts on a variety of issues involving migrant wives, such as how they perceive migrant wives' original culture and lifestyles, the nature of their interaction experience with migrant wives, their overall evaluation of migrant wives, their opinions about migrant wives' cultural adaptation, and their opinions about the on-going transformation of the Korean society into a multi-racial, multi-cultural society. Interview results indicated that, although the participants' attitude toward migrant wives was positive, the overall receptivity to migrant wives was largely based on the traditional sex-role stereotypes typically found in the Korean society. Moreover, the vast majority of the participants endorsed a narrow-minded, uni-directional perspective on cultural adaptation which puts far greater emphasis on migrant wives' assimilation into the host culture than reciprocal influence process between the two cultures. Implications of the study and directions for future research were discussed.
This study examines factors influencing family life-satisfaction, focusing specifically on the role of spousal social support, trust of children and self-efficacy. Based on previous studies, two hypotheses were generated. A total of 857 adults (111 fathers and 111 mothers parents of elementary school students and 108 mothers and 108 fathers of high school students) completed a questionnaire consisting of self-efficacy scales (Bandura, 1995) and social support and life-satisfaction scales developed by the present researchers. LISREL analyses fully supported Hypothesis 1 and partially supported Hypothesis 2. First, spousal social support had a direct and positive effect on family life-satisfaction. Second, self-efficacy had a mediating effect between spousal social support and family life-satisfaction. Those respondents who received higher social support from spouse had higher self-efficacy, who in turn had higher family life-satisfaction. Third, trust of children did not have a direct effect on family life-satisfaction. Fourth, trust of children had a direct and positive effect on self-efficacy, which in turn had a direct and positive effect on family life-satisfaction. The results indicated that those respondents who had higher trust of children, had higher self-efficacy, who in turn had higher family life-satisfaction. Self-efficacy plays an important mediating role in increasing Korean adults' family life-satisfaction. This study reveal the importance of indigenous psychology in unraveling the factors influencing family life-satisfaction among Korean adults.
The polygraph test administered by the Korean Prosecutors Office for crime investigations customarily uses the score of -12 as the cutoff point separating the subjects who lie from those who tell the truth. The criterion used by the KPO is different from the one (-13) suggested by Backster (1963) who invented the particular method for lie detection. Based on the signal detection theory applied to the real polygraph test data obtained from real crime suspects by the KPO, the present study identified the score of -8 as an optimal criterion resulting in the highest overall accuracy of the polygraph test. The classification of the subjects with the score of -8 as the criterion resulted in the highest accuracy (83.17%) compared with the accuracies of classifications with the Backster's criterion (76.24%) and the KPO's criterion (80.20%). However, the new criterion was also found to result in more false-positive cases. Based on the results from the present study, it was recommended to use the score of -8 as the criterion when the overall accuracy is important but the score of -12 or -13 when avoiding false-positive is more important than securing the overall accuracy.