The dynamics of inaction: Psychological factors inhibiting arms control activism.

Studies consistently indicate that the American public strongly opposes many aspects of current nuclear arms policy. However, despite this strong sentiment, only a small number of individuals are actively involved in opposing nuclear policies. Explanations of this lack of behavioral response that emphasize public apathy fail to account for prior instances of widespread public involvement in the area of arms control (e.g., the successful protest over atmospheric testing and the massive nuclear freeze rallies in 1982). Thus, the analysis of arms control inactivity must extend beyond general critiques of public apathy toward an understanding of factors that promote or inhibit behavioral opposition. The current article outlines a set of psychological factors that may serve to interrupt the connection between strong conviction against nuclear arms policies and subsequent political action. These proposed factors are used to evaluate the psychological utility of existing and potential strategies for promoting arms control activism. Subsequently, the implications of this conceptual framework for psychology's understanding and promotion of arms control activism are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The politics of arms control: A matter of perception.

Contends that people have gained an appreciation of the consequences of the nuclear arms race and have decided that those consequences are unacceptable. As a result, the process of arms control has been broadened into a grass-roots movement in the US. It is suggested that public attitudes have shifted from passive acceptance and trust of the insiders' decisions to the active belief that each person must become involved in those decisions. It is further suggested that psychologists can help by disseminating information. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Program evaluation for organizational cultural competence in mental health practices.

Mental health practices that lack cultural competence prevent diverse clients from receiving the care they deserve. As providers and program administrators, psychologists currently have a responsibility to ensure high quality of care for diverse clients at the clinic level. This article deciphers extant empirical research, organizational theory, public policy literature, and best practices to identify which recommendations are most relevant for those in small mental health practices and clinics. The authors present 10 components for culturally appropriate care, ranging from policies and procedures to needs and satisfaction level of clients. This overview can be used to help evaluate and develop a mental health practice's ability to meet the needs of diverse clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religiously integrated psychotherapy with Muslim clients: From research to practice.

In this paper, we attempt to translate empirical findings from a program of research that developed a Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness (PMIR) into practical clinical applications. The findings from this program of research are complemented and illuminated by findings from other empirical research and clinical work with Muslims. Our recommendations can be summarized as follows. First, clinicians should inquire directly about the place of religion in the lives of their Muslim clients. Second, mental health professionals should ask about what Islam means to their clients and educate themselves about basic Islamic beliefs and practices. Third, clinicians should help their Muslim clients draw on Islamic positive religious coping methods to deal with stressors. Fourth, we recommend that clinicians assess for religious struggles, normalize them, help clients find satisfying solutions to these struggles and, if appropriate, refer clients who struggle to a Muslim pastoral counselor or religious leader. Finally, in order to overcome stigma associated with mental health issues, mental health professionals should educate the Islamic public about psychology, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethics and the invisible psychologist.

Psychologists have historically conducted research, taught, and provided human services directly with and for people who could readily identify the providers as psychologists. Increasingly, psychologists find themselves engaged in supplying consulting services that affect the lives of many people but take place without public scrutiny or identification. In these situations, the client may be a nonprofit agency, corporation, or government entity, but the effects of the psychologist’s work may have rippling consequences that affect many individuals’ lives profoundly. The ethical responsibility of such invisible psychologists may extend to members of the public not typically considered clients of the psychologist and raise particular concerns when the net result has adverse consequences for individuals or society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The potential contribution of psychology to nuclear war issues.

Considers the relevance of psychology to 9 nuclear war issues (the nuclear arms race, attitudes toward other nations, deterrance, arms control negotiations, defense-related decisions, crisis behavior, war outbreak, accidental nuclear war, and crisis and conflict management) in response to an article by J. G. Blight (see record 1987-16803-001) and suggests that psychologists could contribute to the understanding of nuclear war by studying these issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Helping construct desirable identities: A self-presentational view of psychotherapy.

The author reviews the research demonstrating not only that clients withhold personal information and reactions from their therapists but also that such discretion is associated with positive therapy process ratings and outcomes. These results run counter to traditional approaches to psychotherapy, which demand a high degree of openness from clients. These puzzling findings can be explained by conceptualizing psychotherapy as a self-presentational process, wherein clients come to benefit from therapy by perceiving that their therapists have favorable views of them. Creating these favorable impressions can involve clients' hiding some undesirable aspects of themselves from their therapists. The author offers findings from the psychotherapy and social-psychology literatures in support of this view and makes suggestions concerning what clients and therapists might optimally reveal in therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Length of psychotherapy for clients seen in private practice.

Length of treatment for all clients (N?=?100) seen for psychotherapy during 1975 by 7 therapists in a private practice psychological clinic was examined to determine the relative frequency of long-term (>25 sessions) vs short-term (≤25 sessions) psychotherapy. Clients were young, middle class, intelligent, and mildly to moderately disturbed. The median length of treatment was 8 sessions. Fully 80% of the clients had left treatment before receiving 25 sessions. This finding mirrors the trend for public treatment settings. Results reaffirm the necessity of further research and development of short-term treatment techniques designed to effectively utilize the brief time even private clients spend in psychotherapy. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical considerations in treatment of personality dysfunction: Using evidence, principles, and clinical judgment.

Clinical work with clients suffering from personality disorders can be among the most challenging for psychologists. These clients may have a wide range of clinical presentations, and many practitioners may lack the specialized training needed to provide successful treatment to these clients. Clinicians are faced with several challenges in making treatment decisions that are ethically informed and based on available research findings. Because of the relative dearth of evidence-based treatments for these clients, clinicians are encouraged to use a cost–benefit analysis approach when weighing the benefits versus disadvantages of specific interventions and treatment approaches. Recommendations for effective and ethical treatment of clients with personality dysfunction are provided that are based on an empirically grounded framework. Three expert commentators provide insights into the state-of-the-art of clinical work with these clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contractor Selection Criteria: Investigation of Opinions of Singapore Construction Practitioners

The construction industry has witnessed the failure of many contractors due to varying reasons such as financial problems, poor performance, or accidents arising from the lack of adequate safety consideration at worksites. All these incidents have led to the impression that the current system of awarding the contracts is inefficient in selecting the contractor capable of meeting the demands and challenges of present times and hence needs to be reviewed accordingly. Therefore, in an attempt to investigate the current situation of the Singapore construction industry a questionnaire survey was conducted for accruing the data required to identify the important contractor selection criteria (CSC) and to draw upon construction practitioners’ opinions regarding the importance of those CSC in assessing the capabilities of the candidate contractors during the selection process. The research reported upon forms part of a larger study that aims to develop a computer-interactive multicriteria decision system for contractor selection involving identification of CSC for inclusion in the system, investigation of CSC preferences of construction practitioners, and establishment of weights for those CSC from their perceived importance determined through the questionnaire survey of Singapore construction practitioners. The study highlights that there are statistically significant differences in opinions regarding the degree of importance assigned to some CSC among public clients, private clients, and contractors. Findings from the study may act as an aid in improving the Singapore construction industry by helping construction clients identify multiple CSC apart from cost which should always be considered when assessing the capability of candidate contractors during the selection process, by assisting contractors in improving their attributes in line with clients’ preferences and by facilitating Singapore construction clients and researchers to develop a contractor selection system capable of assessing multiple attributes of the candidate contractors so that the risk of the project failure due to the selection of an inappropriate contractor is minimized.     

Using qualitative research to strengthen clinical practice.

Does qualitative research have the potential to be useful to practitioners? How might it improve the practice of professional psychology for clients and for practitioners? This article describes the qualitative research paradigm, discusses how it can be adapted to clinical practice, and provides an example of a qualitative study that practitioners can easily accomplish. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religion and spirituality.

We define religion and spirituality and discuss five scenarios in which they will probably emerge in psychotherapy. We review empirical research on religion and spirituality as they pertain to psychotherapy outcomes and relationships. Most research has been unsophisticated relative to the general status of psychotherapy research. Nonetheless, therapists are urged to assess for religion. and spirituality and, if possible, intervene in religiously and spiritually sensitive ways. Nine empirical studies of religiously accommodative Christian (n = 6) and Muslim (n = 3) psychotherapy have provided limited support for its efficacy, especially with depressed clients. Highly religious clients appear to desire therapy that respects (if not integrates) their religion, but research is unclear about the degree to which they can benefit from secular therapies, especially when they request religious therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Price Competitive Alliance Projects: Identification of Success Factors for Public Clients

The need to identify the critical factors in the successful development and management of the price competitive alliance model has become a priority for public sector clients, as there is an increasing need to obtain better value for money (VfM) for its infrastructure projects. Yet, there has been limited research undertaken about the nature and use of price competitive alliances. This research determines the success factors (SFs) for price competitive alliances during their relationship development phases as this form of alliance contract is being used extensively by public sector clients to procure critical infrastructure projects in Western Australia (WA). A review of the literature of partnering and alliance contracting is used to develop a conceptual model of potential SFs. Interviews with 21 practitioners who participated in alliances on behalf of a WA public sector client were conducted to determine their perceived SF for price competitive alliances throughout the relationship development process. Contrary to the literature, each of the SFs identified was required in each stage of the relationship development process. In particular, the development of a leadership enriched culture (where people view the project as an extension of themselves and feel good about what they personally achieve through cooperation) was deemed necessary for the successful implementation of a price competitive alliance. Moreover it was revealed that the establishment of trust for the client began to arise at the point when a realistic target outturn cost that was able to deliver VfM, as well as an innovative sustainable outcome could be attained. Price competitive alliance models are considered to be an appropriate procurement method, albeit during the current economic climate an alternative to public private partnerships, for delivering large complex infrastructure projects.     

Enemy images: The psychology of U.S. attitudes and cognitions regarding the Soviet Union.

The images that the United States and the Soviet Union hold of one another may play a large role in perpetuating the nuclear arms race. Although many psychologists are unaware of it, much research has been done on the psychology of U.S. images of the Soviet Union. This work has been done from a variety of psychological perspectives, including psychodynamic, cognitive, developmental, and social. Here, I describe the results of this research, discuss the theoretical and methodological issues that have arisen, and suggest a number of questions that need to be answered. Finally, I argue that psychologists have not only the capability but also the responsibility to further understanding of the processes that lead the people of one nation to exaggerate the threatening aspects of another nation and to apply this understanding to the mutual enemy images of the superpowers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical issues in the treatment of weight-dissatisfied clients.

A number of ethical issues must be considered in the treatment of clients who are dissatisfied with their weight. Current societal attitudes of opprobrium toward fat affect psychologists as well as the general public, and may have deleterious effects on the ability to provide competent, responsible, and respectful help to large clients, particularly women. Psychologists should be aware that weight status has a large biogenetic component and that dieting is remarkedly ineffective in producing long-term weight loss. Professionals tend to overestimate the harmful effects of obesity and underestimate the negative impact of dieting on physical and psychological functioning. It is proposed that psychologists accept diversity of body size as a manifestation of human differences, promote overall health over thinness, and help clients become self-accepting instead of self-depriving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical search for psychotherapists' gender competence in psychotherapy.

Over the past half century, psychotherapy research has demonstrated that psychotherapy outcomes do not vary based on clients’ gender (Clarkin & Levy, 2004; Garfield, 1994; Wierzbicki & Pekarik, 1993). However, most studies assumed that all psychotherapists are equally competent to treat men and women, thus potentially missing essential information about variations in psychotherapy outcomes. In fact, there is a paucity of studies that have examined if psychotherapists’ gender competence truly exists. We propose that psychotherapists’ gender competence should be defined as the psychotherapist’s ability to achieve positive psychotherapy outcomes with either female or male clients. This study examined the relationship between clients’ gender and psychotherapy outcomes and if psychotherapists varied in their abilities to produce positive psychotherapy outcomes for female and male clients. The sample included 93 male and 229 female clients treated by 31 psychotherapists. Consistent with previous research, the results demonstrated that clients’ gender was not related to psychotherapy outcomes. However, compared to other psychotherapists, some psychotherapists were better at treating men, whereas others were better at treating women. The results of this study demonstrate that psychotherapists’ gender competence exists and relates directly to the psychotherapy outcomes (i.e., psychological well-being) of clients. Implications for psychotherapy practice, training, and research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incidental encounters between therapists and their clients.

Data about incidental encounters with clients in public settings were provided by 573 college therapists (return rate?=?32%), using J. C. Flanagan's (1954) critical incident technique. Results indicated that many therapists experience feelings of surprise, uncertainty, and discomfort, as well as concern about possible violation of confidentiality and therapeutic boundaries during such encounters. Implications for future research are discussed in light of these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achieving a Mental Health Bill of Rights.

The Mental Health Patient's Bill of Rights was the culmination of a meeting of the presidents of 9 national associations of mental health professionals to examine how to best educate the public, policy makers, and benefit managers about ensuring the availability of quality mental health and substance abuse treatments. The principles to which they unanimously agreed hold that mental health clients must have guaranteed confidentiality, a real role in determining their treatment, and a choice of provider. The clients have the right to full information about their coverage as well as parity of mental health and physical health coverage. The actual text of the Mental Health Patients' Bill of Rights is provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client perception of the counselor and orality.

Since previous research and psychoanalytic theory have demonstrated that orality is related to accurate perception of others, it was predicted that high-oral clients would be more accurate perceivers of their counselors than low-oral clients. A pilot study of 12 clients and graduate-student counselors found a trend in the expected direction; a larger study of 21 Ss using a revised Perception of Counselor Questionnaire confirmed the hypothesis. Accuracy of perceiving the counselor did not improve from the 1st administration of the questionnaire, which followed the 3rd counseling session, to that which followed the termination of counseling. The most accurate perceptions were made by female clients with male counselors. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)