Ethical and professional dimensions of socially sensitive research.

Socially sensitive psychological research can pose special ethical problems for the investigator. Socially sensitive investigations, by their very nature, are more likely to draw the attention of other psychologists, the media, and the general public. Ethical analysis relating to the research question, the research process, and the potential application of findings is particularly important under these circumstances. A rudimentary taxonomy is offered that contains four points in the research process at which ethical issues may arise and 10 types of ethical issues. This matrix offers social scientists a tool for increasing their understanding of ethical issues in socially sensitive research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying psychology: Some real world possibilities for scientists and practitioners.

Proposes that the long-term welfare of psychology as a discipline lies in having a significant portion of both scientists and practitioners intentionally choosing to become engaged in and collaborate on issues that have a direct effect on the well-being of humanity. While departing from traditionally limited spheres of enquiry and/or practice may result in errors such as a confusion of values and beliefs with facts, psychological knowledge and skills can be applied to effectively address such issues. Three reasons for psychologists to become actively involved are offered: new scientific insights would be gained, a common purpose would link this diversely talented discipline, and the discipline would gain a sense of integrity both within itself and in the eyes of society. An action plan based on successful experiences in large scale change is proposed to mobilize psychologists as a discipline. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In the Eye of the Storm: Race and Genomics in Research and Practice.

The difficulties of operationalizing race in research and practice for social, behavioral, and genetic researchers and practitioners are neither new nor related to recent genetic knowledge. For geneticists, the bases for understanding groups are clines, observed traits that gradually change in frequency between geographic regions without distinct identifiable population boundaries and population histories that carry information about the distribution of genetic variants. For psychologists, race may not exist or be a social and cultural construct associated with fluid social inferences. Because definitions of populations and race can be socially and biologically incongruent, the authors suggest that geneticists and social and behavioral scientists and clinicians attend to external validity issues by operationalizing population and racial categories and avoiding race proxies for other biological, social, and cultural constructs in research designs, data analyses, and clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology, research, and social policy.

Contends that although it is important and timely for psychologists to be concerned with the interface between psychological research and social policy, academic and research psychologists may encounter problems in relating or adapting their research to matters of policy. For some researchers, there are few problems because their focus of research has both theoretical and policy relevance (e.g., those exploring the scientific question at hand with relevant populations or in policy-connected settings). However, it is suggested that the larger group of behavioral scientists are engaged in research that is more removed from immediate practicality or policy relatedness. It is argued that the ideal solution is not to promote the wholesale conversion of research scientists to redirect their scientific inquiry so that it deals directly with issues of policy. Rather, suggestions are tendered for the melding of policy concerns into research that maintains its relevance to the discipline and to issues of psychological theory or practice while touching also on issues of relevance to social policy. A classification model of social scientists involved with policy is included. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature of psychology: The great dilemmas.

Research about the nature of psychology, its subject matter, its level of analysis, its scientific laws, its relationship with other disciplines, and its social relevance has been a matter of great concern and interest during the development of psychology. This problem can be analyzed in terms of the dilemmas of the psychological discipline, which have been choice points, crossroads, alternative decisions that bring psychologists face to face with the following issues: (a) the subject matter of psychology: psyche, mind, or behavior?; (b) the role of scientific methodology: is psychology a natural science, a social/behavioral/human science, or a part of the humanities?; (c) the universality or particularity of scientific laws in psychology: are laws universal or culture-bound and contextual?; and (d) the balance between science and profession: is psychology a basic science, a socially relevant profession, or both? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age and scholarly impact.

The claim that older scientists generate research of lower quality than do younger scientists was tested through two analyses in which the age distribution of authors of frequently cited articles in psychology journals was compared with the age distribution of authors of low-impact articles published in the same journals. Most high-impact articles were published by relatively young psychologists, but so were most low-impact articles. When allowance was made for relative numerical representation, there was no evidence that publications from older scientists have less impact. Results are discussed in the context of methodological issues in evaluation of relations between age and scientific achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relevant issues in developmental science: Introduction to the special issue.

Introduces a special issue of the American Psychologist that focuses on selected socially relevant issues of interest to developmental scientists. Some of the topics addressed are long-standing concerns in developmental science, such as the development of aggression and antisocial behavior; depression; and competent, socially constructive behaviors. Although some of the positions taken by authors in this special issue are controversial, it is hoped that they will serve a heuristic function by promoting constructive discourse and research to resolve these disputes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health psychology and AIDS.

Discusses how acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) presents a unique opportunity for behavioral scientists, particularly health psychologists, to assume leadership in research and education. The importance of psychological issues implicated in AIDS have been neither fully acknowledged nor addressed by researchers or funding agencies. Behavioral scientist can best approach the research enterprise from a multidisciplinary perspective by applying models in prevention and education that are successfully utilized by social psychologists in smoking- and weight-reduction settings and in intervention studies with other serious medical illnesses, such as cancer. The researcher should view AIDS as a continuum from risk to being capable of transmitting the disease. Symptomatic stages range from constitutional symptoms to those clinical presentations that establish the diagnosis of AIDS. It is suggested that education and prevention research must also cast a broader net to capture audiences that are usually not considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Telehealth issues in consulting psychology practice.

Consulting psychologists have recognized the importance of providing comprehensive consultation and clinical services for consumers with special needs. Often because of distance and access to consultation services, remote and underserved populations may not have the necessary access to consultant specialists in psychology and other disciplines. Such services are now available through an innovative model of telehealth. Telehealth technology and services have gained the attention of scientists, clinicians, consultants, and health educators in a variety of settings. Examined are consultation case scenarios using telehealth qualitative observations of consultants who have used telehealth and liability issues consultants may face using this technology. A model release of liability is provided for consulting psychologists who may consider its use in their consultation practice. Case examples using telehealth applications are discussed, as are special applications for health care delivery to undeserved rural populations using telehealth technology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and the law: A symposium.

There has been growing concern in the community at large about the impact of the work of psychologists and other social scientists on various aspects of life. Many people are beginning to believe that effective control over some procedures and restrictions on the use of material obtained by psychological and other investigations may be necessary. What form such control will take depends to a very large extent on the ability of the disciplines involved to make a meaningful statement of their position in matters of such great sensitivity as the invasion of privacy or the utilization of human research subjects in the process of developing knowledge and applying it for the benefit of the individual and society as a whole. In light of these concerns there has been an increase in discussion among psychologists, about the need to explore some of the critical issues as they relate to practice, research, and the legal implications of the work carried out by psychologists. There have been significant and worrying incidences in which research and applied work have been threatened or stopped due to community reaction (or over-reaction, if you wish) to the threat which the "brain watchers" pose for the rights of the individual. In order to provide a forum for discussion of some of these problems it was decided to hold a symposium at the C.P.A. Annual Meeting in Calgary to present issues and to discuss some of the significant aspects which relate to this matter of Psychology and the Law. Dr. Castaneda, who has spent much time studying the ethical problems relating to research, discussed implications for psychologists doing research with human subjects. Mr. Berry explored aspects of practice which are receiving increasing attention in the legal sphere. Professor Desmond Morton of Osgoode Law School attempted to put in perspective some of these issues as they are seen by our legal colleagues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comment on Dennis' "Productivity among American psychologists".

Doubtlessly, as W. Dennis states (American Psychologist, 1954, 9, pp. 191-194), '...scientists differ greatly in regard to the number of their publications...." Thus psychologists are no different in this respect than chemists, biologists, or other groups in the scientific fraternity. In studying the publications data of four different groups of American psychologists, Dennis found "the total output of each of the groups is made up to a large extent of the publications of a relatively small number of productive individuals." This disparity could be (and probably would be) accentuated even more if additional sources of publications data were consulted other than those specifically relating to psychological publications only, as was the case in the studies cited by Dennis. Particularly within the past quarter century, and more especially since World War II, an increasing number of psychologists have been writing for and have published articles of a psychological nature which have appeared in nonpsychological and nonscientific journals, e.g., trade journals and popular magazines. The point is: if more rigorous and exhaustive publication-searching evidence is and can be employed in comparing the productivity of scientists, including psychologists, we may find that this disparity may be more pronounced than we had been led to think from the studies made to date. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychobiography and the psychology of science: Understanding relations between the life and work of individual psychologists.

This paper presents initial interpretive hypotheses about connections between the life and work of a number of eminent psychologists: Sigmund Freud, Karen Horney, Henry Murray, B. F. Skinner, and Paul Meehl. Each of these interpretations can be critically evaluated, revised and improved, leading to incrementally more adequate understanding of individual lives, interacting with advances in psychological theory and research. Psychobiographical studies of individual scientists are a valuable complement to experimental and correlational lines of research in the psychology of science. In the "Science Wars" of the 1990s, there was an apparent conflict between scientists and those in social studies of science. The psychology of science can contribute to this debate, exploring the ways in which scientific inquiry, social-political worlds, and personal-experiential processes construct each other over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Invited Introductory Remarks to the Special Issue.

Provides introductory remarks to the special issue of the Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science. The author notes that as the scientific discipline and profession that investigates and applies the principles of human behaviour and mental processes, psychology has much to contribute to the law. As scientists, psychologists can study the assumptions that the law makes to test whether such assumptions are supported by empirical evaluation. As practitioners, psychologists can apply the principles of psychology to help assess or modify an individual's behaviour and mental processes. While noting the important contributions Canadians have made to the field as researchers, clinicians and editors of key journals in the field, the author addesses areas that can benefit from further attention, including the need for ongoing thought about the definition of the field, and the need for further research and practice focus on areas of law that have heretofore either been neglected or ignored. In addition, he brings attention to the need for increased interdisciplinarity in our field and notes training needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hurricane Katrina: Experiences of psychologists and implications for future disaster response.

The landfall of Hurricane Katrina marked not only one of the most significant and destructive natural disasters for the United States in recent history, but also a new benchmark in challenges faced by psychologists providing services. The authors explain their roles following the hurricane, describing not only local activities for recovery but efforts conducted in the Gulf Coast as well. Experiences and perceptions of the first author, who was deployed to the Gulf Coast on numerous occasions, are highlighted. In addition, psychological assessments were carried out with a small number of displaced Katrina survivors who were relocated to the authors' local community. The authors document many of the challenges faced by psychologists and other mental health workers during relief efforts in the Gulf Coast, concluding with a set of recommendations for future disaster-relief initiatives regarding such issues as ways in which psychologists can participate in disaster-relief efforts, challenges faced when implementing interventions, cultural competency, community preparedness, and scientific research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constructing psychology: Making facts and fables for our times.

Contends, based on a constructionist position on epistemology, that scientific knowledge (and knowledge of all kinds) is a construction of the human mind. Meaning is attributed to sensory data in theoretically guided inventions of "facts." At different times and places, facts invented in one theory become different facts in another. In each generation, psychologists have favored variables that serve loyally within the theoretical boundaries of the scientific wisdom of that time. It is argued that favored variables can blind scientists to other theories and other variables that could compete for favor. What makes theories and facts plausible is examined, and a continuum of persuasion, determined by the contexts of the theorists is proposed. Contemporary research on lead exposure and on parent–child interaction are examined as examples of facts that can become different facts in other theories. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Values, politics, and psychology.

Comments on H. H. Kendler's positivist critique regarding the role of value in the world of psychology (see record 1999-11644-004). Smith objects to Kendler's interpretation of Smith's justification for a socially activist psychology. He argues that psychologists, as scientists and professionals, have just as much justification as anybody else, and more than many, to enter into democratic controversy about value choices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alternative images of the citizen: Implications for public policy.

Argues that in attempting to understand socially significant political issues and problems, political scientists and other policy makers have made heavy use of psychological models of the citizen. It is argued that instead of drawing such models from psychology, their efforts have utilized the psychological models of the citizen suggested by economic theory. As a result, the potential effects of citizens' concerns with distributive and procedural fairness—factors typically excluded from economic theories—have been ignored in studying citizens' political evaluations and behaviors. Evidence is given to show (1) that political evaluations and behaviors are influenced by justice-based concerns and (2) the need to broaden the image of the psychology of the citizen to include the influence of citizens' concerns about fairness. (93 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conference report: Potent podium on pornography.

We wish to describe briefly the proceedings of a large symposium held in Toronto during February 1984 on Media Violence and Pornography. We shall not attempt to describe in any detail what particular speakers had to say, since that would take far too much space. Instead, we shall try to give an impression of the meeting and use this as a platform to discuss the questionable contribution of research findings to conferences which are preoccupied with emotional issues. The symposium was clearly not intended to be a scientific enterprise. It was not intended to inform an intelligent audience of the issues surrounding pornography and violent entertainment. The organizers wished to convince the public that censorship is necessary. The conference drove home to us how important it is for psychologists and other social scientists to ensure that programmes are balanced and well moderated should they decide, as well they might, to "enter the fray" in areas where strong emotional stands are being voiced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New technology, old issues: Demonstrating the relevance of the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists to the ever-sharper cutting edge of technology.

New technology brings with it new opportunities for the practice of our profession. However, this technology is also a double-edged sword in that it can also cause problems for our profession and those we serve. The Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists (3rd edition) provides a foundation for approaching the issues that can arise in its use. It is argued that psychologists need not wait for specific rules and guidelines regarding the ethical use of new technologies; rather, psychologists can utilize the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists immediately to address many of the issues involved. There is a wide range of areas in which ethical issues can arise. The focus in this paper is on three specific examples (online personal information accessibility, web-based advertising, and electronic data storage). These examples illustrate both the ethical issues involved and demonstrate the potential for how the Code can be used to think through and manage or resolve the issues. After a discussion of the three examples, the ongoing relevance of the Code to meeting the ethical challenges of continuously evolving technologies is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)