Graduate school reminiscences: Hull and Koffka.

Describes 2 yrs (1925-1927) spent as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, with C. L. Hull as major professor. During the 2nd yr, Kurt Koffka was on the staff in the Psychology Department as Visiting Professor, and the writer took courses and seminars concurrently from both men. Some of the author's impressions and experiences are described, including that of an oral examination in which 2 of the examiners were Hull and Koffka. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

More about Hull and Koffka.

Comments on J. A. Gengerelli's (see record 1977-07112-001) article presenting reminiscences of a year when K. Koffka and C. L. Hull were presenting antithetical theories to the graduate students of the University of Wisconsin and introduces additional memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of important psychological books.

80 of 100 psychologists who possessed PhDs and were staff members of colleges or universities were randomly selected from the "American Psychological Association 1958 Directory." In order, the highest rated authors were: Freud, James, Hull, Pavlov, Watson, Boring, Skinner, Thorndike, Woodworth, Tolman, Kohler, Lewin, Darwin, Ebbinghaus, Koffka, and Wundt. Books rated with the largest number of points include: James' "Principles of Psychology"; Hull, "Principles of Behavior"; Pavlov, "Conditioned Reflexes"; Freud, "Interpretation of Dreams"; Boring, "History of Experimental Psychology"; and Watson, "Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2AI92W. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Charles A. Kiesler.

The Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy presented to Charles A. Kiesler is conferred upon a psychologist who has made a distinguished empirical and~or theoretical contribution to research in public policy, either through a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of work. This contribution may consist of such factors as research leading others to view specific national policies differently, research demonstrating the importance of the application of psychological methods and theory to public policy, and research clarifying the ways scientific knowledge of human behavior informs public policy. Members of the 1989 Committee were George Albee (Chair), Julia Ramos- Grenier, Vera Paster, Bonnie Strickland, Logan Wright, and Raymond D. Fowler. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Quandary.

Although I applaud R. B. Cattell's (July 1983) recommendation/prognostication for the cessation of hostilities between the psychology and psychiatry professions, I am in a quandary as to how to convince my psychiatrist colleagues to give up their psychotherapy practices, change specialties, and disband the American Psychiatric Association. All of 10 physicians diagnosed me as delusional when I surveyed their attitudes toward Cattell's proposal. Three of 6 psychiatrists recommended medical psychotherapy, 2 suggested a trial on a phenothiazine, and 1 wanted to commit me to the local state psychiatric hospital. Four of 4 internists polled referred me back to psychiatrists for treatment. A change in the relationship between psychology and medicine will not evolve through natural selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Christine A. Courtois.

Acknowledges Christine A. Courtois, who has achieved national recognition for her contributions to understanding and treating incest and other forms of sexual victimization. She has provided insight and guidance in studying and treating the delicate and critical area of interpersonal victimization and posttraumatic responses. A citation, biography, and selected bibliography are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A consumer approach.

Commends the consumer-oriented approach to psychotherapy of R. T. Hare-Mustin et al (see record 1979-26958-001) and suggests additional ways of ensuring therapist accountability, including (1) requirement of therapists to reveal their success/failure rates to clients, (2) the protection of confidentiality in group therapy through a liquidated damage clause, and (3) the use of client advisory boards for examining client complaints. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reversal paradox.

The reversal paradox refers to the possibility of having 2 variables that are positively (negatively) related while at the same time having the variables negatively (positively) related within each level of some 3rd variable. The relationship between the paradox and the notion of exchangeability is described. This paradox plays an important role in the theory of the evolution of altruism, and it underlies a challenge to the "sure-thing-principle" in decision theory. It was involved in a study by P. J. Bicket et al (1975) who concluded erroneously, it is argued, that sexual discrimination was practiced in graduate admissions by a prominent university. Finally, principles for creating "reversing" decompositions of statistical relationships are described. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A disclaimer.

Responds to the exchange between J. W. Osborne (see record 1982-29343-001) and J. G. Greeno (see record 1982-29237-001) on the hegemony of natural scientific conceptions of learning, dissociating A. P. Giorgi's interpretation of phenomenology from that of Greeno. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

John A. Bargh.

Presents an overview of the career of John A. Bargh. For outstanding and original research on the forefront of cognitive approaches to social psychology. His use of innovative methodologies for studying social information processing has illuminated the role of knowledge accessibility and automatic processing in social perception. Using elegant experimental designs, he has made seminal discoveries of the interactions between conscious and unconscious processing and between prior expectancies and stimulus input. His theoretical distinctions among varieties of automatic and controlled processing have made a significant contribution to psychology. An exceptional scientist and scholar, he has set the agenda for future research on the role of the unconscious in social behavior (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A clarification.

Claims that M. Rokeach and S. J. Ball-Rokeach (see record 1989-25677-001) noted an isolated trend in their research data on the ranking of equality in national samples and pulled 1 supporting indicator from research on changes in White racial attitudes (H. Schuman et al, 1985) without examining the larger body of evidence. Trend data and incomparable data sets contradict Rokeach and Ball-Rokeach's conclusions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lorrin A. Riggs.

Presents the biography and lists the scientific publications of Lorrin A. Riggs, a recipient of the award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution in 1974. For his many basic and incisive studies of human vision. His ingenious contact lens electrode made possible the first reliable quantitative correlations of a subject's electroretinogram with his psychophysical responses. By another adaptation of the contact lens, he obtained highly precise and quantitative measures of both voluntary and involuntary eye movements, the latter proving to be essential for the maintenance of vision. His further electrophysiological studies of human peripheral color receptors and their concurrent evoked cortical responses laid the groundwork for his most recent studies of the color and form "channels" of the human perceptual system. All this bespeaks a mastery of visual science, its physiology and psychology in the grand tradition of Helmholtz. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A power primer.

One possible reason for the continued neglect of statistical power analysis in research in the behavioral sciences is the inaccessibility of or difficulty with the standard material. A convenient, although not comprehensive, presentation of required sample sizes is provided. Effect-size indexes and conventional values for these are given for operationally defined small, medium, and large effects. The sample sizes necessary for .80 power to detect effects at these levels are tabled for 8 standard statistical tests: (1) the difference between independent means, (2) the significance of a product–moment correlation, (3) the difference between independent rs, (4) the sign test, (5) the difference between independent proportions, (6) chi-square tests for goodness of fit and contingency tables, (7) 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and (8) the significance of a multiple or multiple partial correlation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

E. A. Bott: Another View.

Continues the tribute to Edward Alexander Bott with a conversation between C. R. Myers and David Gibson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Calgary. Gibson recounts his experiences as a student in one of Bott's courses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychiatric will.

Describes the use of a "psychiatric will" as a simple contract between the author and his recurrently manic patients to determine whether the patient will give the author power to hospitalize him/her in certain health states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Mexican psychology.

The universality—not the scientific character—of psychology is challenged by data previously reported by the present author and other researchers suggesting the need for a sociocultural psychology of personality. Specific factorial scales of Mexican, natural language, and sociocultural premises are found to be meaningfully associated, at three different ages, with a number of reliable measures of psychological dimensions. A national, local-belief-based, clinical understanding of Mexican youth on the basis of intra- and cross-cultural studies is illustrated. From the evidence, it is proposed (a) that culture, as defined, can account for significant variance of bona fide psychological and other behavioral science dimensions; and (b) that there is a basis to speak about sociocultural psychologies, such as a Mexican psychology. The disclosure is made in the context of the author's attempts to understand the Mexican personality and society. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Missing Variable.

The author comments that while the participants in the discussion of the isolated worlds of the clinician and the experimentalist (April 1955, American Psychologist) were penetrating in their observations, they seemed to have left out one very important variable. He states that one may "use" feelings, intuition, and fantasies in the same way that one may "use" experimental findings and methodologies, statistics, and scientific principles. Both statistics and intuition, and any other human sensitivity or invention, may be "used" to maintain one's omnipotence. A most crucial variable in the discussion is maturity. To be open to all that is reality will permit the clinician and the experimentalist to communicate and contribute mutually and cooperatively to our increased understanding of human behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)