On Doctoral Dissertations.

A piece of research is a creation no less than a work of art. The investigator begins with an idea, elaborates it into a design which he executes and brings to completion in a written report. Like any other creation a good experiment derives from long diligent practice and many partial failures and complete flops. This is expected and accepted in all the arts and most of the sciences except apparently in psychology where a goodly number of doctoral candidates expect to carry out earth shattering studies the first time out. This attitude leads to a proliferation of grandiose studies with often little significance for the science in general and the investigator in particular. Would it not be much more realistic and valuable all the way around for the candidate to replicate, with perhaps some innovations, significant experiments of recognized master psychologists? The candidate would learn to choose significant problems; he would master a fruitful technique, worth a hundred grandiose ideas; and he would make a useful contribution to a science which must blush each time the repeatability of its experiments is mentioned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Doctoral dissertations in clinical training programs: 1948-1953.

An analysis of the distributions of doctoral dissertations by school as well as a breakdown in terms of area of study, e.g., general, experimental, theoretical, or personality and social processes, etc. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

U.S and Chinese cultural beliefs about learning.

This study examined U.S. and Chinese conceptions of learning with leaning-related terms collected from U.S. and Chinese college students. Cluster analysis yielded a hierarchical structure of this lexicon for each culture. The 2 sets of cultural beliefs contained such different notions about learning that there was little overlap, however. The English terms included elaborated conceptions of mental processes, internal learner characteristics, social contexts, and externally existing bodies of knowledge. Most Chinese terms dealt with "seeking knowledge" including personal attitudes, purposes, and action plans for leaning. Chinese conceptions also emphasized achievement standards of breadth and depth of knowledge, the unity of knowing and morality, and contributions to society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in beliefs about groups.

The current research examined individual differences in peoples' positive versus negative beliefs about groups. Three studies were conducted to develop and validate a 16-item Beliefs About Groups (BAG) scale. Factor analyses in Studies 1 and 2 identified and replicated a 4-factor solution, with factors reflecting preferences for group versus individual work, positive group performance beliefs, negative group performance beliefs, and beliefs that others will work hard on group tasks. Study 2 also provided evidence for convergent and divergent validity, and explored relationships between the Big Five personality dimensions and group beliefs. Study 3 provided evidence for test–retest reliability. Across these 3 studies, the BAG scale had total score alphas ranging from .83 to .88. Implications of beliefs about groups for member motivation and group performance, as well as for future research and practice, are highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations Necessary? A Comment.

Discusses the findings Terry Eisenberg's (see record 2005-10605-002) investigation of relations between peer ratings and doctoral examination scores (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature of teachers' pedagogical content beliefs matters for students' achievement gains: Quasi-experimental evidence from elementary mathematics.

In a longitudinal study of 496 students in 27 self-contained German elementary school classrooms, performance in mathematical word problems and arithmetic tasks was measured at the end of Grades 2 and 3. A questionnaire was used to assess the degree to which teachers' pedagogical content beliefs in elementary mathematics reflect a cognitive constructivist orientation, rather than an associationist or direct-transmission view of learning and teaching. Our findings show that a cognitive constructivist orientation was associated with larger achievement gains in mathematical word problems. Moreover, teachers with a direct transmission view were not more successful than teachers with a cognitive constructivist orientation in fostering students' computational proficiency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beliefs about affirmative action: A test of the group self-interest and racism beliefs models.

Two models of affirmative action attitudes (i.e., group self-interest and racism beliefs) were examined among a sample of racially diverse college students. Open-ended questions were included to provide students an opportunity to elaborate on their beliefs about affirmative action and beliefs about the existence of racial discrimination. Findings from logistic regression analysis on a subsample (n = 376) provide support for both models; race (a proxy for group self-interest) and racism beliefs (as measured by the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale [CoBRAS] and an the open-ended question) helped predict endorsement of affirmative action in theoretically expected ways. Asian, Latino, and Black students were more likely to view affirmative action as helpful compared to their White counterparts, and limited awareness of institutional racism (i.e., higher CoBRAS scores) was associated with antiaffirmative action arguments. Follow-up analysis, however, provided support for the superiority of the racism beliefs model as measured by the CoBRAS in predicting affirmative action beliefs over the group-interest model. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Doctoral student awareness of licensure, credentialing, and professional organizations in psychology: The 2005 National Register International Survey.

The 2005 National Register International Survey assessed doctoral students' familiarity with licensure, credentialing, and professional organizations in psychology in the United States and Canada. A total of 3,835 doctoral students responded online. Results indicated the substantial majority planned to apply for a license but had not researched the requirements and that less than half were familiar with named credentialing organizations. The authors recommend ways for professional organizations and doctoral programs to disseminate information on licensing and credentialing to increase student awareness and prevent qualification problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Courses for credit.

"No course should be offered for credit by TV which has not been approved for inclusion in the college catalog, TV students should meet course standards to which residence students are held, and TV students should ordinarily come to the campus to take their examinations… ." For faculty load accounting, "it is recommended that a one-term television course (three 30-minute programs a week) should equal one-half of a normal full-time teaching load… ." Courses for credit via TV "… can be accomplished with no sacrifice of standards." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religious beliefs of Catholic college students and their attitudes toward minorities.

"There was a very significant tendency… for those scoring high on the religion scale to be less favorable toward Jews and Negroes and to favor segregation of Negroes in their own parishes, while those who scored low on the religion scale were significantly less prejudiced and were opposed to segregation." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of beliefs about the origins and controllability of dreams.

In three studies the authors investigated the development of beliefs about dreaming. Study 1 assessed 3 to 5-year-old children's beliefs about the origins and controllability of dreams. Results revealed significant changes in children's beliefs about the roles of behavioral experiences and mental processes in the generation of dream content. Results also revealed that young children consider both dreams and imagination to be highly controllable. In Study 2, preschool-age children, elementary school-age children, and adults received either imagination or dream stories and were questioned about controllability. In Study 3, emotional valence of the dream content was varied. Results of Studies 2 and 3 revealed significant development in beliefs that dreams are not subject to conscious control. Beliefs in controllability were higher among females. Study 3 showed that the emotional content of a dream affects these claims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical responses when patients' religious beliefs appear to harm their well-being.

Although religious affiliation is generally associated with good mental health, at times patients may present with religious beliefs that appear to harm their well-being or social functioning. On the one hand, it would appear that respect for the patient's religious traditions requires psychologists to refrain from challenging those problematic religious beliefs. On the other hand, the goal of promoting patient welfare requires psychologists to challenge those beliefs that appear to inhibit patient well-being. This article analyzes this apparent dichotomy and suggests ethically based responses consistent with good clinical care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeking professional help: Etiology beliefs about mental illness across cultures.

In the present study, the authors examined the contributions of cultural beliefs about the etiology of mental illness to the seeking of help from mental health professionals among college students in 4 cultural groups, European Americans, Chinese Americans, Hong Kong Chinese, and Mainland Chinese. Group differences were found in help-seeking history and likelihood, with European and Chinese Americans being more likely to seek help than Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese. Multiple-group path analysis showed that lay beliefs about causes of mental illness and prior help-seeking history significantly predicted help-seeking likelihood, which was related positively to environmental/hereditary causes but negatively to social-personal causes. Our findings demonstrate the importance of understanding help-seeking patterns within specific cultural contexts and the effects of Western influences on shaping help-seeking propensities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-relevance of person characteristics: Persons' beliefs about developmental change across the lifespan.

The authors investigated normative beliefs about personality development. Young, middle-aged, and older adults indicated the age-relevance of 835 French adjectives by specifying person characteristics as typical for any age decade from 0 to 99 years. With this paradigm, the authors determined age-relevance (How typical is a characteristic for a given age decade?). Most characteristics were ascribed to young adulthood. The pattern differed across the lifespan, however, for positive and negative person characteristics as well as for physical, cognitive, and personal/expressive characteristics. Whereas the total number of ascribed positive characteristics peaked in young adulthood and declined thereafter, the number of ascribed negative person characteristics peaked during adolescence, remained fairly low during middle adulthood, and increased slightly in old age (70+ years). As a consequence, the most positive profile was ascribed to young olds (60 to 69 years), whereas the most negative personality profiles were ascribed to the oldest age groups (70+ years) and to adolescence (10 to 19 years). The negative profiles are primarily due to more negative physical characteristics ascribed to older adults and more negative cognitive characteristics ascribed to adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encouraging Academic Careers: One of Many Desirable Career Options for Doctoral School Psychologists.

The training environment of a graduate program can impact students' decisions about pursuing an academic position. This article describes the training environment at The University of Texas at Austin. Results of a survey of current students and graduates who have pursued academic careers are presented. Outcomes of the survey suggest that students are attracted to academia because of the variety of job responsibilities. Students who choose applied practice do so because they want to work directly with children, adolescents, and families. Students who choose either career path do so because of the desirable aspects of that career rather than because they are trying to avoid the undesirable aspects of the other career. Implications for training doctoral students who are interested in academic positions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology students' interest in research: Examining the contribution of achievement goals.

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive utility of achievement goal theory relative to the outcome of interest in research. The sample consisted of 114 doctoral students in counseling psychology. Results indicated that achievement goals accounted for 24% of the variance in interest in research over and above demographic and social-cognitive/contextual variables. Mastery approach and performance avoidance goals were shown to be significant positive and negative predictors of interest in research, respectively. In addition, age, year in program, and research outcome expectations were found to be significantly associated with interest in research. Implications for research training are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of competence-related and motivational beliefs: An investigation of similarity and influence among friends.

This research examined the degree to which children's achievement-related beliefs could be predicted from their friends' beliefs, both concurrently and over time. For 3 semesters, 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade students (N = 929) completed measures of their competence-related beliefs, motivational beliefs, and friendship choices. Concurrent analyses indicated that friends showed consistent, albeit modest, similarities with regard to their self-perceptions of competence, academic standards, importance of meeting standards, and preference for challenge. During the academic year, friends appeared influential with regard to children's ability attributions for success and the importance they placed on meeting academic standards. Over a grade-level transition, friends appeared influential with regard to children's ability attributions for failure. Overall, associations were stronger among reciprocated than among unilateral friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual beliefs about human values and their implications: Human nature beliefs predict value importance, value trade-offs, and responses to value-laden rhetoric.

Beliefs that may underlie the importance of human values were investigated in 4 studies, drawing on research that distinguishes natural-kind (natural), nominal-kind (conventional), and artifact (functional) beliefs. Values were best characterized by artifact and nominal-kind beliefs, as well as a natural-kind belief specific to the social domain, "human nature" (Studies 1 and 2). The extent to which values were considered central to human nature was associated with value importance in both Australia and Japan (Study 2), and experimentally manipulating human nature beliefs influenced value importance (Study 3). Beyond their association with importance, human nature beliefs predicted participants' reactions to value trade-offs (Study 1) and to value-laden rhetorical statements (Study 4). Human nature beliefs therefore play a central role in the psychology of values. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From adolescence to adulthood: Age-related changes in beliefs about cigarette smoking in a Midwestern community sample.

The current study used a cohort-sequential design to examine age-related changes in health-relevant beliefs from the middle school years through age 37 in a large, midwestern, community sample (N?=?8,556). Results suggest systematic age-related changes such that beliefs in the personalized risks of smoking declined in middle school and then increased, beliefs in generalized health risks increased beginning in the middle school years, and values placed on health as an outcome decreased in the high school years and then increased. These findings suggest that intervention programs must counter declining personalized risk perceptions among middle school students and declining values placed on health among high school age students, (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)