Genetic testing: Psychological aspects and implications.

As the number of genes associated with inherited disease continues to grow, researchers and practitioners in behavioral medicine will encounter complex psychological issues faced by individuals at risk for these diseases. A review of the literature concerning prenatal, carrier, and predictive genetic testing suggests that the severity of psychological risks posed by research-based genetic testing is not great. However, subgroups of individuals with particular psychological traits may be more vulnerable to adverse effects. Available data do not provide evidence that genetic testing promotes changes in health-related behaviors. Thus, although there may be less of a role for mental health professionals in the psychological counseling of genetic testing participants, there is a need for research and practice to facilitate health protective behaviors in response to genetic risk information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special series.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in most industrialized countries. Moreover, it has increasingly been recognized that the major risk factors for development of CVD are behavioral. Risk factors that relate to life-style or behavioral tendencies include smoking, hypertension, obesity, elevated serum cholesterol, exercise habits, alcohol consumption, aspects of the Type A behavior pattern, environmental stressors, and psychophysiological responsivity to stressors. This special series addresses the current status of research on behavioral variables in CVD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding immigrant families from around the world: Introduction to the special issue.

Investigations of immigrant families enable researchers to trace family processes and children’s psychological adjustment in the presence of trenchant sociocultural change, cultural conflict, family dislocation, and the need for readjustment to new social environments. This special issue of 15 articles presents psychosocial research on immigrant families and children residing in Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States. The articles focus on the psychosocial adaptation of immigrant families, parenting practices and their implications for child outcomes, and the importance of parent–adolescent relationships for adolescent mental health. Most of the articles are based on quantitative research methodologies. It is concluded that research on immigrant families is well suited to advance knowledge about the mutual dependence of dynamic sociocultural and family processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue on rehabilitation psychology and the law.

Introduces this Special Issue of Rehabilitation Psychology, which includes a compilation of articles that represent the most current thinking in and is an up-to-date report of the interplay between legal factors and rehabilitation psychology. The guest editor, Bruce Sales, in his overview of the issue, cogently identifies those barriers to effective rehabilitation and highlights those that are created by our legal system, at either the national, state, or local level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue.

Rudolf Arnheim was born July 15, 1904, and he has maintained contact with colleagues past his centenary year. A symposium, "Honoring Rudolf Arnheim at 100: Creating Psychology and the Arts," was held at the 113th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Washington, DC, on August 20, 2005, and he sent along a welcoming note (see Figure 1). Presenters included Claire Golomb, John Kennedy, Ellen Winner, and myself, with our current Division 10 president, Lauren Seifert, serving as moderator and discussant. At the end of the session, Michael Wertheimer offered reminiscences about his relations with Rudolf Arnheim, and his written reflections appear as the first contribution in this issue of the journal (Wertheimer, 2007). Ian Verstegen (2007) has also contributed an article based on his book Arnheim, Gestalt and Art: A Psychological Theory (Verstegen, 2005). A collection of these articles are presented in this issue of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue.

Provides an introduction to the special issue of the American Psychologist, which is one of several publications prepared for the celebration of the centenary of the American Psychological Association (APA). The 25 invited articles in this special issue constitute a unique collection portraying the founding and development of the "new" psychology in America. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of APA, this special issue showcases the work of many of the leading scholars writing in the history of psychology today—individuals trained in psychology and history. There is great diversity in this collection of articles that tells the story of American psychologists involved in the advancement of psychology as a science, a profession, and a means of promoting human welfare. The author concludes by briefly describing the founding of history as a specialty area within the discipline of psychology by Robert Watson, and this special issue is dedicated to his memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue.

This article introduces this special issue of the American Psychologist. The topics in this section concern the physical and mental health of children, and how social policies affect their development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue.

Introduces a special issue of American Psychologist in honor of the International Year of the Child. Themes of the issue include the necessity of studying children's behavior in context, the embeddedness of psychology in social-cultural-historical context, the importance of developmental changes across childhood, and the interplay of knowledge and application. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to special issue.

The purpose of this Special Issue of Canadian Psychology is to celebrate the significant role the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists has played since its first adoption by the Canadian Psychological Association in 1986, 25 years ago. Twelve articles, two in French, are included. The articles describe the process of the Code's continuing evolution, its applicability in the different legal framework of Quebec, investigations into the Code, and its application to old and new ethical issues related to research, teaching, and practice (e.g., the development of research ethics in Canada, the use of vignettes in ethics teaching, mandatory self-disclosure by students, rural psychology, the use of technology, and humanitarian work). The final article provides a series of commentaries by psychologists from other countries regarding the Code and its international impact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to special issue.

This article serves as a brief introduction to this special issue of the Review of General Psychology. The editor of this Special Issue and the authors presented put forth ideas and data on how we may better understand the people who make and interpret science. They hope that their work will serve to establish the "psychology of science" as a recognizable and useful field of study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to special issue.

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of two powerful, and seemingly contradictory, visions of what most fundamentally causes change in psychotherapy. One of these visions emphasizes the primacy of therapist technique. According to this viewpoint, it is the specific methods used by the psychotherapist that account for, by far, most of the variance in treatment outcome. This viewpoint is seen most notably in what have been termed the empirically supported treatments (EST) and evidence-based practices (EBP) movements. The second vision instead focuses on the patient-therapist relationship and so-called therapist-offered relationship qualities as the sine qua non of therapeutic effectiveness. Advocates of this viewpoint underscore research on the importance of relational qualities such as the therapeutic working alliance (or cohesion in groups) and therapist-offered conditions. While acknowledging the value of both visions noted above, this special issue of Psychotherapy is based on the notion that what matters most in psychotherapeutic treatments is the interplay of the two, of techniques and the therapeutic relationship. Technical factors and relational factors are indelible elements in each and every psychotherapy encounter, and the articles in this special issue explore and seek to uncover why this is so. The articles, in addition, seek to describe the complex ways in which technique and relationship interact with one another in different treatments, at different points in treatment, and in conjunction with still other variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special series.

The treatment of emotional and behavioral problems among children and adolescents is an area in great need of research. The range and diversity of problems children and adolescents experience, the number of youth in need of treatment or care, and the costs of impairment to society are enormous (see Institute of Medicine, 1989). As information accumulates on the continuity of dysfunction across the life span, the importance of intervening early in development for both treatment and preventive purposes assumes increased significance. Research advances are evident but often difficult to discern against a backdrop of a more active adult psychotherapy literature and broader work in developmental psychopathology. The present series of articles was developed to highlight research on psychosocial treatments for children and adolescents. The very large number of treatments and problems to which they can be applied preclude exhaustive coverage of the field. The present series is illustrative with articles that evaluate traditional forms of psychotherapy, demonstrate advances in developing and evaluating selected treatments for special groups, highlight the critical role of evaluation for programs designed to ameliorate dysfunction, and characterize current treatment research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to this special issue.

In this introduction to the special issue, the former president of the American Psychological Association describes some of the work he did during his presidency regarding aging and working with older adults. He introduces the present special issue of Psychotherapy which includes a number of submissions dealing with treatment, intervention, assessment, policy issues, and research in the field of aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological evaluation at juvenile court disposition.

Do psychologists' evaluations of juvenile offenders prior to dispositional placement have a measurable effect on judges' decision making? Is the nature of any such influence best explained by the quality of the written report, the relationship between the psychologist and the judge, or a combination of these and other factors? The current study attempted to address these issues by investigating the quality of 172 predisposition psychological evaluation reports from a Philadelphia-area juvenile court jurisdiction and the association between report quality and judges' recommendation acceptance. Results point to the need for practicing psychologists and judges to become more aware of the relevant domains of assessment for this type of evaluation and of what constitutes quality reporting within each domain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The seemingly quixotic pursuit of a cumulative psychological science: Introduction to the special issue.

The goal of any empirical science is to pursue the construction of a cumulative base of knowledge upon which the future of the science may be built. However, there is mixed evidence that the science of psychology can accurately be characterized by such a cumulative progression. Indeed, some argue that the development of a truly cumulative psychological science is not possible with the current paradigms of hypothesis testing in single-study designs. The author explores this controversy as a framework to introduce the 6 articles that make up this special issue on the integration of data and empirical findings across multiple studies. The author proposes that the methods and techniques described in this set of articles can significantly propel researchers forward in their ongoing quest to build a cumulative psychological science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue on skill.

The special issue on Skill is intended to capture some of the excitement generated by the renewed interest in understanding skilled performance. It is not intended to jump uncritically on the bandwagon of ecological validity, although there is considerable merit in examining complex tasks that bear a strong resemblance to those that people engage in outside the laboratory. The contributors to this issue have all seen fit to explore various aspects of skilled performance. Despite their adoption of very different theoretical approaches, the contributors all address the common theme of skill. Questions of skill are intrinsically questions of individual differences. How can we best explain why some people are highly skilled at a particular activity, whereas others are not? How do people acquire skill? Lurking not far below the surface are questions of nature versus nurture. Thus, it is interesting to read Ericsson's argument that mnemonists are not unusual people, in the sense that the principles of memory that apply to nonskilled individuals hold too for the performance of such experts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue: Psychology and AIDS.

From its beginnings in 1981, psychologists have been involved in worldwide efforts to meet the many challenges of the AIDS health crisis. As researchers and practitioners, as consultants and policy advisors, as educators and evaluators, and as activists and concerned members of the community--we psychologists have responded in many ways. We have attempted a broad perspective in approaching this special issue. We wanted coverage of the science, the practice, and the social issues that AIDS has brought into focus for psychology. Any attempt to cover all the issues is doomed to failure, however. The science changes too quickly, and the disease is spreading too rapidly, for any group of journal articles to ever claim currency and comprehensiveness. The issue has been divided into six major sections, each with an introduction. We begin with articles that overview the roles of psychology in the AIDS health crisis as seen in our own profession, and from various levels of science, health care, and legislative and government action. Then we present articles reviewing some of the primary issues AIDS commands us to examine: public health, antibody testing, AIDS and the communities of Black and Hispanic men, IV drug abuse, sexual behavior change, stigma, and psychoneuroimmunology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding binge drinking: Introduction to the special issue.

Widespread interest in binge drinking, demonstrated by scientists, public policymakers, and educators, served as the impetus for assembling this special issue. The contents represent state-of-the-science conceptualizations and empirical work on the topic of binge drinking. This issue begins with 2 invited articles and contains a selection of empirical articles that reflect experimental and correlational designs, longitudinal studies of the course and correlates of binge drinking, and controlled-intervention trials. These articles address the construct validity of binge drinking as well as its utility as a high-risk marker in both theory-testing and intervention contexts. This introductory article discusses several advantages and disadvantages of continued use of the term binge drinking and suggests alternatives for use in research and applied contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Celebrating the decade of behavior: Introduction to special issue.

This special issue represents a joint effort by the journal Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology and the American Psychological Association's Division of Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse to celebrate the "Decade of Behavior: 2000–2100" initiative. The Decade of Behavior initiative seeks to underscore the importance of behavioral science to broadening understanding and offering solutions to many of society's most challenging problems. Contained in this special issue are commentaries by 3 Institute directors from the National Institutes of Health, 4 excellent critical reviews of various aspects of contemporary psychopharmacology research, and a series of 9 excellent original research reports. This series of articles bodes well for the health of psychopharmacology and substance abuse research and offers a fitting salute to this important initiative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)