Professionalism within school psychology.

Seven attributes of professionalism are examined in light of school psychology: a profession's activities, self-regulation, professional preparation programs, socialization, status, rewards and recognition, and professional practice within organizations. More programs may be needed at the doctoral level. National organizations should become more involved at the state and regional levels. Professional status and identity are affected by esoteric knowledge, difficulty in obtaining an education, the centrality of school psychology within education and psychology, client qualities, and low salaries. Psychological services should be institutionalized in schools. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethics education and adjudication within psychology.

Provides an overview of the formal ethics system within psychology. The structure of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the state ethics systems, the functions of the APA Committee on Scientific and Professional Ethics and Conduct, and the process for handling complaints, from initial inquiry to final adjudication (and appeal, if any), are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Essential tension: Specialization with broad and general training in psychology.

The practice fields of psychology develop through specialization in training and education. The recognized specialties play a major role in developing new opportunities for professional psychology and providing quality services for the public. The essential tension comes from the balance of innovation and tradition and, in professional psychology, from the balance of fragmentation and unification. As an example, specialization in clinical child psychology is integrated within the broad and general traditions. The greater degree of focused science and practice in a specialty is the logical consequence of advances of the discipline and profession of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The status of the psychology of consciousness within Canadian academic psychology.

Presents the results of a questionnaire sent to the heads of Canadian psychology and educational psychology departments to determine the availability of courses offered in the psychology of consciousness. Findings from 42 departments show that when it is covered, consciousness is usually dealt with incidentally. Few departments offer regular courses exclusively in the psychology of consciousness. Results suggest neglect of a fundamental aspect of human functioning. (French summary) (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Career change within psychology: Retraining nonclinical psychologists in clinical psychology.

Collected the 1st reported empirical data concerning opportunities for career changes within psychology. 124 directors of American Psychological Association-approved clinical and counseling programs were asked, via questionnaire, if they would consider for clinical training students with backgrounds in general–experimental psychology. Of the clinical program directors, 13% answered Yes, 37% No, and 42% Under special circumstances. Of the counseling program directors, 48% answered Yes, 9% No, and 26% Under special circumstances. Seven university programs are discussed that provide a 2-yr program of clinical training for persons from nonclinical areas. Recommendations are made concerning future developments in this area of career change. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sport psychology training within a clinical psychology program and a department of intercollegiate athletics.

Many applicants to clinical and counseling psychology programs are interested in receiving the training needed to practice competently in the professional specialty area of sport psychology. In this article, the authors describe a collaborative training and service relationship between an APA-accredited clinical psychology program and an intercollegiate athletics department. Sport Psychology Services provides performance enhancement, program evaluation, and mental health services to the athletic department. In return, graduate students receive applied training, financial support, and opportunities to conduct research. The authors present program evaluation data and offer practical guidelines to graduate programs wishing to establish similar training opportunities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Environmental psychology: A core field within psychological science.

To counter D. Stokols's (see record 1996-13229-001) notion that the identity of environmental psychology has become more diffuse and transparent over the past 30 yrs, the author makes two points regarding the past and future research activities of the field. First, environmental psychology deals with one of the core sets of fundamental issues addressed by psychological science (i.e., the person situated in and transacting with the environment), and second, it is providing an ongoing forum for basic theorizing about person–environment relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The competency movement within psychology: An historical perspective.

The authors provide a recitation of events in recent years that document an increased focus on competency-based models of education, training, and assessment in professional psychology, particularly clinical, counseling, and school psychology, based on the work of the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Task Force on Assessment of Competence in Professional Psychology. The article begins with the inclusion of competencies as part of the "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct" (APA, 2002). Next, accreditation practices in the United States and Canada are summarized. Competency-based education, training, and credentialing efforts in professional psychology are reviewed, including graduate, practicum, internship, and postdoctoral levels; licensure; postlicensure certifications; and board certification. General and specialty credentialing efforts both in North America and internationally follow. The Competencies Conference: Education and Credentialing in Professional Psychology and work on developing competencies for the profession are discussed. Then initiatives focused specifically on the assessment of competence are delineated. Implications for continued progress toward a culture of the assessment of competence are discussed in light of the historical origins within the profession of the competency-based movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training in religion/spirituality within APA-accredited psychology predoctoral internships.

With the vast majority of the U.S. population reporting allegiance to a particular faith tradition, it is important that psychologists have the experience and training to work with clients from a wide variety of religious/spiritual perspectives. In order to assess the current level of training in religion/spirituality for predoctoral interns, 139 American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited predoctoral internship sites completed a Web-based survey. Religion/spirituality is most often addressed in internship training when clients bring it up, and religion/spirituality is processed further in the context of supervision. Relatively few internship sites provide more formal training in religion/spirituality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognition and instruction: Their historic meeting within educational psychology.

Examines the emergence of cognitive approaches to instruction, with hope that an understanding of the origins of this field will yield perspective on where it is going. First, a historical analysis of the relation between psychology and education, especially cognitive psychology and instruction, is undertaken. Then, an historical overview is provided of the progression of 3 views of learning and instruction: learning as response acquisition, learning as knowledge acquisition, and learning as knowledge construction. Next, cognitive theory is examined in more detail, with a particular focus on cognitive processes involved in learning. Finally, examples of progress and potential progress in the area of cognition and instruction are provided, through a focus on the emergence of psychologies of subject matter and on the cognitive analysis of individual learning strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on "Professionalism within school psychology."

Discusses T. D. Oakland's (see record 1987-13985-001) concerns about professionalism in school psychology, which are interpreted as centering on problems of school psychologists' morale and pride in their work and in their identity. Based on the suggestion that many of these problems may be due to school psychology being too narrowly defined to allow its practitioners sufficient professional mobility and opportunities to apply all their knowledge and skills, the concept of human services psychology is proposed as a framework within which the solution to these and other problems cited by Oakland may be found. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overview to special issue: Understanding emotions means crossing boundaries within psychology.

Emotional processes influence a wide range of mental and physical systems, which makes them difficult to understand from a single perspective. In this special issue of the Review of General Psychology, contributing authors present 4 articles that draw from several areas within psychology in the service of understanding a topic relevant to emotion. In this overview, the authors argue that the long neglect of the scientific study of complex processes such as emotion might be linked, in part, to the fractionation of the field into specialized subdisciplines. Just as emotions were of central concern in the early years of psychology (which was a generalist's era), as psychology moves toward more integration in the late 20th century broad phenomena such as emotions are once again central interests. The 4 articles of this special issue are briefly reviewed as exemplars of an integrated approach to understanding emotional phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training and education in religion/spirituality within APA-accredited clinical psychology programs.

Future, and current psychologists may find themselves baffled when confronted with the diversity of religious and spiritual backgrounds of their clients. Few psychologists have received professional training with regard to religion and spirituality, despite the public's overwhelming interest. Currently, the topic of religion/spirituality is being covered to some degree in most accredited clinical programs. However, a distinct minority of these programs approach this education and training in a systematic fashion, whereas other programs report no educational or training opportunities in this area. Several recommendations are made for training programs, which are encouraged to increase their sensitivity to this topic, provide more opportunities for student growth in this area, and incorporate religious and spiritual issues into course work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

U.S. psychology and world psychology.

Contends that although US psychology at present occupies a major position in world psychology, the field is growing more rapidly in many other countries. An example of international cooperation in an endeavor that could not be achieved by the psychological community of any single nation (i.e., securing the admission of the International Union of Psychological Science to the International Council of Scientific Unions) is given. A list of suggestions is presented outlining ways in which individual psychologists can take part in international psychological activities. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Military psychology and general psychology.

Suggests the relevance of many findings, methods, and viewpoints of military psychology to approaches taken by behavioral and social scientists in solving contemporary problems. 4 factors which have promoted utilization of the results of military psychology are discussed: organizational continuity, membership in the research and development community, comprehensiveness of individual projects, and concern about implementation. (35 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Humanistic psychology and positive psychology.

Comments on M. E. P. Seligman and M. Csikszentmihalyi's (see record 2000-13324-001) introduction to the special issue on positive psychology (American Psychologist, 2000[Jan], Vol 55[1]). The commenting authors wish that Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi had done a more scholarly job of investigating humanistic psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Revisiting efforts on constructing a knowledge base of evidence-based intervention within school psychology.

Responds to comments (see records 2003-01789-008, 2003-01789-009, 2003-01789-010, 2003-01789-011, 2003-01789-012, and 2003-01789-013) on the mini-series on evidence-based interventions (EBIs) in school psychology (see records 2003-01789-005, 2003-01789-006, and 2003-01789-007). The author focuses on clarifications regarding decisions made by the Task Force and Manual Subcommittee on what constitutes EBIs, realizations about critical issues surrounding these decisions, and specifications for the future. In clarifying the purpose of the Procedural and Coding Manual, 4 design ideals or standards that underlie the conceptualization of the EBI coding structure are reviewed. The design ideals provide underlying assumptions for evaluating intervention studies within the discipline, and include: (1) build researcher-practitioner alliance, (2) respond to the unique issues of school psychology, (3) promote and enhance scientific study, and (4) reflect the broad, diverse nature of the field. Next, central issues raised across the commentary articles are discussed with respect to two sets of juxtaposed considerations: Provide Comprehensive Information vs Maintain Practicality, and Invoke Rigorous Research Design Features vs Reflect School Context Features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Community and psychology and community psychology.

Community psychology has become an increasingly active speciality with promise of providing a relevant link to current social issues. It's province and dimensions are not yet clear, however. A traditional antipathy toward field and community studies has fostered prejudice and misinformation about the nature of inquiry. The logic of research suggests a need for naturalistic studies, with an ecological orientation as an effective framework. The community is seen as a productive domain for the study of psychology. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)