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In my Psychology of Gender Differences class I have learned many of the differences between men and women. One big difference in their behavior is in the way men and women communicate. Women, for instance, engage in more positive social behavior (agreement) and men engage in more task orientated behavior and negative behavior (disagreeing). Men's language also tends to be more direct, succinct, and instrumental. Women's language on the other hand is more indirect, elaborative, and affective. I was interested to see how the way men and women's ways of communicating would affect certain occupations in our law system. I found an extremely interesting article on men and women's communication styles amongst lawyers. Here is what I found:

Although the gender inequality in professions in the law system seems to be becoming less prevalent, women still might struggle to be as effective communicators and negotiators as men. This article explains that women need to understand one thing, that men and women are different and have different ways of communicating, and therefore negotiating. Like a sports team, you must use your own team's strengths to win. Women and men must recognize their strengths and weaknesses and then build ways to negotiate properly with people.

 "Studies have shown that when men are negotiating against women, they tend to play hardball or tend to be more aggressive and concede less than they would if they were negotiating against a man.  I think it is important to keep that in mind so that you understand before you go into a negotiation what the ground rules are."

Women also tend to have a want to be liked by the person she is negotiating with. This could possibly limit them to less aggressive styles of negotiating. She may be afraid as being seen as too aggressive if she were more direct. Women must instead use their strengths instead. Women ask more questions, and work to get to know the person better. This in turn could help this person self-disclose more and then the negotiator could learn to deal with their personality better.

Do you think women can use these strengths to be great negotiators? Or do you think men will always be more aggressive in nature, and therefore better at negotiating with people?

 

http://litigationconferences.com/?p=4260

After watchin the movie Gridiron Gang the other night I found myself fearing things like the chance of a gun man in the mall. When a person starts thinking about these kinds of things they sometimes start to consume my thoughts. I started thinking about our campus and the safety of it. I'm very thankful to go to a college the gives me a great sense of safety. I started to think about small towns. I grew up in one and found myself not worrying if I walked across town and not witnessing or ever hearing about crime in my small town hardly ever growing up. It makes me wonder if because of the fear of crime people in bigger cities would be more psychologically unstable when it came to fearing crime and what kind of impact this would have on depression rates in small towns and big cities. I also thought this article was neat because of the correlation between fearing crime and people's mental health.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070927164455.htm

I also wanted to look deeper into researching the presence of depression in the law system. I found shocking information relating to depression and lawyers. According to a study at Johns Hopkins, that when 28 occupations were studied, the one most likely to experience depression was the occupation of lawyer. Why is this? For one, it appears that the legal profession attracts people who are perfectionists. There also seems to be a large amount of pessimistic personality traits in people who are lawyers. Of another study at Johns Hopkins it showed that optimism out performed pessimism. However, there was one exception and that was people working in law school.

I am taking the class Psych of Personality. I wouldn't say that Psych of Law and that class are very compatible. However, personality does have a large effect on what professions people choose. This is something that affects the types of people who do indeed become lawyers. Psychology reaches so many different aspects of life, and this is clearly an example of that.

http://www.legalunderground.com/2005/03/lawyer_depressi.html

 

  In October 2008, Michelle Kehoe drove herself and her two boys, Seth (age 2) and Sean (age 7) to Hook-n-Liner Pond near Littleton, IA. She then tied both of her boys up, duct taped their eyes, nose, and mouths, and slashed their throats leaving little Seth dead and seriously injuring Sean. She then proceeded to the edge of the pond and attempted suicide by slashing her own throat. When she did not succeed with her suicide attempt, Kehoe went to a nearby house and claimed that a man kidnapped them and killed her children. Unbeknown to Kehoe, her son Sean had survived the attack and was able to tell authorities in the hospital later that day what truly happened.
 In November 2009, Kehoe stood trial for the murder of her son Seth and plead insanity. She was later found guilty of 1st Degree Murder, Attempted Murder, and Child Endangerment. In December 2009, she was sentence to life without the possibility of parole for the murder, 25 years for attempted murder, and 10 years for the child endangerment charged.
 
 Click here for the article about the trial. This also has short video clips of the trial including testimony from both psychologists, the recorded statement from Kehoe's surviving son, and the Kwik Star surveillance video of the family shortly before the horrific crime.
 Click here for the article about the sentencing hearing and how Kehoe's husband asked for leniency but the judge denied it. (Please note that the dates written in the article are wrong. Kehoe committed the crime in 2008 and the trial was held in 2009)

 For me, this case hit extremely close to home, in more ways than one. First off, there is the physical aspects of the crime. Kehoe stopped with her boys at the Kwik Star in Jesup, Iowa (which is where I live) and the store clerk who testified is a person that I know.
 After leaving Kwik Star, Kehoe drove down the road and stopped to let her boys play at the playground in front of St. Athanasius School. This playground is located directly behind my house (all that separates my yard from the playground is a single row of trees) and my oldest son plays there often. At this point in the time line, Kehoe purposely left her cell phone so that nobody could call for help.
 From the park, Kehoe drove a few miles further to Hook-n-Liner Pond. This happens to be my husband's and my fishing spot (since this happened though, we have decided to find a new spot). It is located in an extremely secluded location so a person would have to be familiar with the area to find it. Kehoe was originally from this area. In fact, the house down the road from it used to be owned by one of her relatives.