American psychologists and psychology abroad.

Discusses the isolationism of American psychology and argues that American psychologists need to develop a world view of their science and profession. Such consciousness raising would best begin in undergraduate training and should include exposure to research of foreign psychologists through literature, international meetings, travel, and exchange programs, as well as cooperative research opportunities. Suggestions are offered as to how such exposure can be implemented. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of nonclinical psychologists toward clinical psychology and clinical psychologists.

Surveyed psychologists outside the clinical realm to ascertain their views on the efficacy of psychotherapy, as well as their views on clinical psychologists. Surveys were mailed to 300 nonclinical psychologists randomly chosen from the American Psychological Association Directory. Results of 109 usable surveys suggest that although the majority had a positive view of clinical psychology, a substantial minority either were uncertain or disagreed that therapy was effective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Polypharmacy and older adults: A role for psychology and psychologists.

The literature and clinical experience confirm polypharmacy as an important contributor to avoidable morbidity and mortality among older adults. Sociocultural factors, along with the interplay among aging, physiology, chronic disease, and the medicines that seniors take play important roles in clinical presentations, conclusions drawn, interventions planned and implemented, and health care outcomes. Knowledgeable psychologists can help reduce the number and severity of common geriatric syndromes (e.g., falls and mental status changes) that our nation's elders suffer due to inappropriate polypharmacy. Providing high quality psychological services includes developing collaborative relationships with medication prescribers and participating in interdisciplinary teams, even if loosely defined (as is often the case at the community-based, independent practitioner level of care). Informed psychological interventions (including dynamic, cognitive, and/or behavioral) can effectively modify many older adults' medical and other health concerns, reducing the need for and risks associated with taking multiple medications. Participating in research, public education, and advocacy efforts in order to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the health care and services that older adults receive are also vital roles for psychology and psychologists. (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)     

Preparing psychology and psychologists for new health care markets.

Because our training models in Clinical Psychology have not kept pace with the rapid changes in the health care marketplace, we may be in danger of preparing psychologists for markets that no longer exist. The next generations of psychologists will require the skills of the entrepreneur and the leader in addition to a range of core clinical skills. At the same time, our profession's historic commitment to science as the best epistemic game in town may founder if we fail to pay better attention to knowledge translation (i.e., how to move scientific findings expeditiously from the laboratory into practice). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human resource planning: Challenges for industrial/organizational psychologists.

Human resource planning has traditionally been used by organizations to ensure that the right person is in the right job at the right time. Under past conditions of relative environmental certainty and stability, human resource planning focused on the short term and was dictated largely by line management concerns. Increasing environmental instability, demographic shifts, changes in technology, and heightened international competition are changing the need for and the nature of human resource planning in leading organizations. Planning is increasingly the product of the interaction between line management and planners. In addition, organizations are realizing that in order to adequately address human resource concerns, they must develop long-term as well as short-term solutions. As human resource planners involve themselves in more programs to serve the needs of the business, and even influence the direction of the business, they face new and increased responsibilities and challenges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School psychologists in forensic psychology: Converging and diverging issues.

Forensic school psychologists working with mentally disordered offenders and behavior-disordered youth in psychiatric and correctional facilities face unique challenges. Psychological resources are typically inadequate, and the comprehensive roles of school psychologists are frequently misunderstood. In this article, the unique character of forensic work facing school psychologists is discussed, and similarities and contrasts between public school and forensic practitioners are outlined. Recommendations and implications for preservice training for school psychologists interested in the forensic subspecialization are outlined and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collaboration in capitated care: Challenges for psychology.

This article highlights the mutual dependence of disciplines in capitated care systems, with a focus on a sample program at Kaiser Permanente. Challenges for psychology are discussed as they relate to intradiscipline issues, relationships with other psychosocial care disciplines, and broad health care systems issues. The author suggests that psychology's future in capitated care will rest on skills in research, program development, and specialty practice areas (e.g., clinical health psychology, clinical neuropsychology) and encourages advocacy for the elimination of mind–body dualism in health care policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Workplace diversity and public policy: Challenges and opportunities for psychology.

This article outlines both challenges and opportunities for psychology of issues related to diversity in education and work. For the purposes of this discussion, "diverse" populations include four groups currently marginalized and disadvantaged in the U.S. workplace: women, people of color, sexual minorities, and people with disabilities. An overview of employment participation patterns for these groups is presented, workplace barriers arising from marginalized status are highlighted, and the article concludes with a discussion of work-related legislative and public policy fronts that can be informed and influenced by the contributions of psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influential works and authors in psychology: A survey of eminent psychologists.

Surveyed 19 experimental, 13 personality and/or clinical, 9 developmental and/or educational, and 16 social psychologists who were among the 102 most frequently cited psychologists in the 1975 Social Science Citation Index to determine the works and authors in the field they found most influential. Two of the authors, both experimental psychologists, were women; all Ss received their PhDs between 1927 and 1967. 39 authors and their cited works are listed. Freud was most frequently cited by Ss receiving PhDs before 1951; B. F. Skinner was most frequently named by those granted PhDs since 1951. As expected, there were substantial differences between works that were most often cited as influential by these authors and the readings that were most often recommended by graduate faculties surveyed in previous research: The authors' list of readings tended more toward the theoretical, while the works recommended by faculties are largely compendia of empirical work. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in family law and family life: Challenges for psychology.

In the past two decades, striking changes in family demographics have been accompanied by equally dramatic shifts in family law. The development of constitutional principles to guide state involvement in the lives of children and families has raised questions about the competence of minors and the sensitivity of parents to children's interests. At the same time, legal realism finally has emerged as an approach to the construction of new standards for resolution of family disputes and new definitions of the family itself. These changes in family law present new challenges to psychology to generate and diffuse the knowledge necessary for careful policy-making. Care must be taken, though, to ensure that legitimate limits of role and expertise are acknowledged and respected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating psychology and public health: Challenges and opportunities.

Psychology has made significant strides in developing applications relevant to public health. However, improvements are still needed to integrate psychology into the public health infrastructure. The challenge for public health is to recognize psychology's special contributions to policy and practice, especially to prevention of disease and injury. The challenge for psychology is to assure coherent integration of relevant theories, knowledge bases, and public health practice. Recommendations to address these challenges include (a) demonstrating how psychology incrementally improves public health service systems; (b) developing middle range and small theories of public health problems and practice (Lipsey, 1993; Merton, 1968); (c) developing intervention models in partnership with nonpsychologists so that the effects can become widespread; and (d) ongoing scrutiny of the intervention models to assure that theory has been operationalized well. Psychology's unique role in public health is to act as the steward of a correct application of behavioral knowledge and theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training international students from developing nations as psychologists: A challenge for American psychology.

Argues that psychology training programs must be internationalized if the field is to avoid becoming the study of Western behavior. Examples from the 1st author's training experience are used to illustrate problems confronting students from developing countries. Strategies for implementing a transcultural training program are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Putting self psychology to good use: When social and clinical psychologists unite.

The subareas of psychology often fail to share with one another their research and theorizing. This article attempts to redress this lack of communication as it pertains to social psychological theorizing and research on self-motives. The article starts with a review of the social psychological literature surrounding people's needs for positivity and verification, followed by a discussion of how to integrate these seemingly incompatible literatures. The article then highlights how these self-motives likely play a role in the psychotherapy enterprise and suggests ways in which therapists might use this information. By bridging the gap between the social and clinical literatures in this way, the authors anticipate that both fields will progress more productively toward their respective goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The training of school psychologists and implications for a professional school of psychology.

Suggests that the training one should receive at a professional school of psychology toward the doctorate in school psychology should focus on skills not currently offered. These include training in group, individual, crisis, and family counseling, and in the psychological ramifications on youth of social stresses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practicing psychologists’ reflections on evidence-based practice in psychology.

An American Psychological Association (APA) policy definition of evidence-based practice in psychology (EBPP) states that practice based on evidence must consider the best available research, use clinical expertise, and consider client contextual variables (APA Presidential Task Force, 2006). The researchers qualitatively examined clinical and counseling psychologists’ attitudes toward EBPP using grounded theory. The study explored the extent to which the official view of EBPP reflects current psychological practice as well as whether EBPP is an idealistic definition to work toward. An examination of themes from this research yielded evidence that the framework for EBPP is in place, although many participants initially confused EBPP with research. Psychologists will benefit from an open-minded review of the official APA policy definition and from considering how the policy may affect their practice and interactions with managed care providers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Opinions about industrial psychology by different groups of psychologists.

"In general, the findings provide a partial sketch of how industrial psychology is perceived and evaluated by different groups of psychologists. The most common criticism is that industrial psychology is not sufficiently concerned with its ties to basic psychology… . In addition, serious questions are raised concerning the areas of research that are emphasized or slighted, the professional qualifications of many practitioners, tendencies to offer psychological judgments that reach beyond scientific results, frequent overselling of industrial applications, and an excessive accent on the practical in training industrial psychologists. Many psychologists also charge that industrial psychology is too management oriented, that it operates too much within a management frame of reference… . Finally, it should be noted that our results reveal wide differences of opinion among the psychologists questioned, not only between the industrial psychologists and the other professional groups but strikingly also within the ranks of each group." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training psychologists to work with religious organizations: The center for church–psychology collaboration.

Church–psychology collaboration is gaining attention among professional psychologists, but few training or practical research opportunities are available for those interested in collaborating with religious leaders and organizations. The authors introduce the Center for Church–Psychology Collaboration (CCPC), with its mission to make sustained and relevant contributions to the research literature in psychology, train doctoral students in effective means of collaborating with religious organizations, and provide service to religious communities throughout the world. Domestic and global implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Education for research in psychology.

A report of a seminar held at Estes Park, Colorado, July 28-August 22, 1958, sponsored by the Education and Training Board of the American Psychological Association. The purpose of the seminar was "to provide information which would aid institutions giving graduate degrees in psychology in examining and improving their programs for training research men." Major sections are: (a) How Research Gets Done; (b) Formal Aspects of Graduate Training (Statistics, Other Tool Subjects, Breadth of Scholarship, Role of Theory in Research, Standardization), (c) Development of the Individual (Selection, Motivation, Apprenticeship); (d) Summing Up. Research is "learned by doing and taught mainly by contagion. Research must first be going on if there is to be research training… . Apprenticeship is, we believe, the most important part of education for research in psychology; the professor who hires a graduate student as a research assistant takes on the primary teaching responsibility for that student, a responsibility which both he and his department must recognize." Opposition is expressed to standardizing training programs for research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The first generation of women psychologists and the psychology of women.

At the end of the 19th century, psychology was among the most hospitable of the sciences in admitting women to its ranks. Among this so-called first generation of women psychologists were a number of individuals who aggressively challenged the prevailing stereotypes concerning the psychological characteristics of women and men. Further, many of these women actively promoted equal educational and professional opportunities for women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)