ISSN : 1229-067X
This article provides a psychological analysis of the diversion policy, which gives a special status to juvenile offenders under the umbrella of the juvenile justice system. The juvenile justice system was created on the premise that juvenile offenders do not fully grasp the nature and consequence of their actions, that they are much more amenable to rehabilitation, and hence the juvenile justice system focuses on rehabilitation of juvenile offenders than punishment. In recent years, with the increased violence, incidence, and severity of the crimes committed by juvenile offenders and the age in which violent crimes are being committed by adolescents steadily decreasing, many have questioned the validity of the assumption and viability of the juvenile justice system. The critics charge that the arbitrary age definition of a juvenile is no longer tenable since children mature much more quick and the violent nature of their crimes suggests that they may not be amenable to rehabilitation. Review of the existing legal and psychological literature suggests that the previous assumption that juvenile offenders cannot fully grasp the nature and consequence of their action is not fully supported by empirical evidence. The current literature fails to provide conclusive evidence that juveniles are cognitively and socially immature and they are unable to understand the nature and consequence of their actions. The outcome of the conversion policy that focused on rehabilitation of juvenile offenders is inconsistent, showing both positive and negative results. With the mixed results, it is important to re-examine the fundamental premise and viability of the present juvenile justice system. It is necessary to modify the policy based on theoretically grounded, conceptually valid, and empirically supported research. Implications of the developing a rational and scientifically grounded legal system for adolescents that takes into account psychological research will be discussed.
This paper reviewed previous studies on the characteristics of lying and lie detection. Lies are frequently encountered in everyday life and can be categorized as harmless types and harmful types. Ability of lying develops with age. Untruthful expressions of women tend to be more readily detectable than those of men's. But women can read other people's expressions more accurately than men. The evidence of lying can be distinguished into thought-related cues and emotion-related cues. No single linguistic or nonlinguistic clue could assure whether someone is lying or not. Common errors committed during lie detection and the accuracy of polygraph test were also reviewed. Finally, possibility of utilizing the outcomes of lie detection research in criminal investigation and the relationship between lying and interpersonal trust were discussed.
I reviewed the historical efforts of constructing the Korean psychology in Korea. Taking the cultural psychological perspective(Shweder, 1990), I defined the Korean psychology as the psychological study of and for the Koreans, which should be constructed with the concepts and theories rooted in Korean social life. I elaborated why it is needed, what have been done with regard to, and how it should be pursued. Up untill 1980's, Korean psychologists were eager to importing Western psychology. Western psychology was regarded the psychology of universal theory. Because people are not keenly aware of the cultural properties of psychological theory, schism developed between psychological theory and Korean social life. Construction of Korean psychology begins with recognition of colonial status of psychological studies in Korea. Researchers should base their theory on the social life of Korean people. Suggestions were made to help build up Korean psychology. Studies of replication may benefit if conducted with cultural variables added to the original study. More attention to other Korean researcher's work is desired.
In this research, we developed and tested an internet counseling program for social and cultural adaptation of Korean adolescent international students (KAIS) in U.S. Adaptation needs of those students were assessed in the Study 1. Survey and interview data from the Study 1 showed that Korean adolescent international students in U.S. experience adaptational difficulties mostly in such areas as school, language, culture, law, and family relations. Based on the need assessments from the Study 1, an internet counseling program was developed and its effects were tested in the Study 2. In Study 2, a group of 36 KAISs were assigned into the on-line counseling condition in which the subjects completed 12 sessions of internet counseling program. Another group of 17 KAISs were assigned into the off-line condition in which the same counseling program was administered in the traditional face-to-face sessions. The third group was a control group of 47 KAISs to whom no program was administered. All three groups of the subjects were tested twice (pre-test and post-test) with several psychological instruments to measure goal ambiguity, activeness in challenge seeking, self-regulation, self-competence, assertiveness, and stress control. The on-line group and the off-line group alike showed marked improvements in psychological functioning as measured on the post-tests compared with those on the pre-tests. The control group showed no difference between the two tests. It was concluded that the on-line counseling program is as effective as the traditional face-to-face counseling method for the improvement of psychological functioning that is necessary for successful adaptation of KAISs. Practical implications of the results were discussed.
Expectancy and importance of a specific activity depends on identity salience of the activity related role. Thus, leisure identity salience can influence expectancy and importance of leisure activity. Consequently, it is supposed that the effect of leisure experience on leisure satisfaction and life satisfaction depends on leisure identity salience. To examine this proposition, this study investigated the leisure identity salience, leisure experience, leisure satisfaction, and life satisfaction of leisure sports participants of serious leisure activities. Serious leisure is defined as the steady pursuit of a specific leisure activity with complexity and numerous challenges. The results of the survey analysis verify that leisure experience consists of four components: self-affirmation, escape from daily routine, perceived self-efficacy, and social relation. Identity salience influences the relative importance of each leisure experience component to leisure satisfaction. This explains that individuals with high leisure identity salience differ from individuals with low leisure identity salience in expectancy of a leisure activity. Also, in low leisure identity salience group, none of the leisure experience components influences life satisfaction. However, in high leisure identity salience group, most leisure experience components show significant effects on life satisfaction. This analysis leads to the conclusion that positive leisure experience will improve the life satisfaction of the individuals with high leisure identity salience, although it does little for the individuals with low leisure identity salience. It also explains that a mere expansion of leisure time or the number of activities would not enhance one's life quality or satisfaction. To achieve this end, systematic and steady pursuit of the leisure activity is required.
North Korean defectors in South Korea are the only available subjects today for an empirical study of gender role characteristics and gender egalitarianism of the North Koreans. One-hundred and fifty North Korean defectors, both female and male, and ages ranging from 14 to 62, answered a questionnaire which included Korean Sex Role Inventory and Korean Gender Egalitarianism Scale. The results revealed that North Koreans are more gender-typed in their gender role characteristics compared to South Koreans. Women showed significantly higher femininity scores than men, and men showed significantly higher masculinity scores than women, whereas South Korean data do not show much difference between women and men. With regard to gender egalitarianism, North Koreans showed more conservative attitudes compared to South Koreans, and men were more discriminating than women. The difference between North and South, however, were greater for women than men, and it was attributed to the rapid value changes toward gender egalitarianism among South Korean women. A close look at the items that North Koreans strongly agreed to showed a tendency to express progressive attitudes mostly on formal and institutional issues, and to show conservative attitudes on personal and private issues. In addition, the effects of age, education, and marital status on the gender role characteristics and gender egalitarianism of the North Koreans and directions for future research were discussed.