Enhancing the social ethics of psychology: Toward a psychology at the service of social change.

Presents a proposal for furthering the social ethics of psychology under the general term conscientization (P. Freire, 1971), which entails carrying out 2 tasks, denunciation and annunciation. It is argued that in contrast to its considerable efforts to insure proper ethical behavior toward individual clients, psychology has virtually neglected its moral obligations to society. Psychology can contribute to the advent of social change toward a "good" society by making explicit the process by which people come to accept the current social order as the best possible one, and by proposing strategies to counteract this pervasive phenomenon. This article illustrates how psychological research and psychologists can significantly transform social structures incapable of promoting human welfare. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology a century ago.

America's dual interest in social welfare and practical science fueled the emergence of social psychology in the late 19th century. By that century's end, psychologists had presented diverse and sometimes contesting models of social psychology. These varied conceptualizations, however, were challenged by the discipline's growing dedication to the scientific method and experimentation, as well as the profession's need to produce knowledge that could be readily used to address current social problems and regulate social institutions. An appreciation of this late-19th-century moment of intellectual generativity and constraint affords an opportunity to reflect on the potentials and constraints of social psychology at the end of the 20th century. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A quarter of a century of computer-assisted anticoagulant treatment]

PURPOSE: Presentation of two cases of crystalline lens posterior dislocation with concomitant, total, funnel-shaped retinal detachment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The described patients were myopes and both had lost vision of the other eye earlier due to the same cause. The operation of dislocated lens removal through the limbal incision with the use of pars plana vitrectomy and simultaneous retinal detachment surgery were performed. RESULTS: In one patient almost full visual acuity was achieved, and in the second case visual acuity was improved to 3/50. CONCLUSION: The use of vitrectomy methods, including subretinal fluid drainage and intraocular silicone oil tamponade, enables efficient treatment of patients with dislocated lenses even in cases with total retinal detachment.     

A century of psychology in the Ozarks.

Describes the history and evolution of the Department of Psychology at the Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas and discusses the contributions of the persons influential in the evolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a social psychology of solidarity.

Comments that D. R. Fox (see record 1985-30567-001) connected the problems of global ecology and of individual needs and values and asserted that most of the solutions offered for the tragedy of the commons have been centrist in nature. Empirical questions (e.g., defense, intergroup coordination, humans as social animals, the social psychology of solidarity) are discussed. It is suggested that experiments in building solidarity will be difficult (especially in the large and complex groups, riddled with divisions, that Fox wishes to form into a decentralized society) but worth trying. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental social psychology in Canada: A look at the Seventies.

Topics included in this literature review include attitude change, group processes, aggression, helping behavior, impression formation, attribution, moral judgment, the social psychology of criminal justice, and discipline-related issues. Unfortunately, programatic research constituted only a small portion of the reviewed literature. The review of the entire body of experimental literature did not reveal any distinctly Canadian issues, but rather those of social psychologists in general. (French abstract) (5? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychology laboratory at the turn of the 20th century.

The author provides a brief history of the psychology laboratory from 1879 to 1900, discusses its crucial role in the founding of scientific psychology, and describes how it enabled psychology's separation from philosophy. The laboratory model is described as a research and graduate training enterprise that operated with K. Danziger's (1990) concept of a community of scholars and was eventually extended to the training of undergraduate students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A quarter century of normalization and social role valorization: Evolution and impact.

Reviews the book, A quarter century of normalization and social role valorization: Evolution and impact edited by Robert J. Flynn and Raymond A. Lemay (see record 2001-00115-000). The appearance of this new book by Flynn and Lemay presents a timely opportunity to reassess the status and value of the concepts of normalization and social valorization as they pertain to people with developmental, psychiatric, and intellectual impairments. The book consists of an introduction and 29 chapters organized into seven parts: historical evolution of the concepts (4 chapters), critical perspectives (4 chapters), links with social science theory and research (5 chapters), dissemination through training and education (3 chapters), international impact (9 chapters), personal impact (3 chapters), and the future (1 chapter). This organization holds together reasonably well. As might be expected, the chapters vary in both precision of writing and robustness of content. This book has value at many levels. Most immediately, it provides a useful historical overview and summary of concepts that have had an impact on human services in the latter half of the past century. At an intermediate level, it stimulates thinking about conceptual research issues that have immense relevance to psychology generally and to the enhancement of life opportunities for marginalized citizens. At a deeper level, the debates and discussions prompt serious thought about the fundamental forces driving social policy and about the ways in which humans relate to each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching social psychology: A Canadian dilemma.

Criticizes the American dominance of Canadian social psychology. It is argued that many American models and perspectives are only partially relevant to Canada. The exclusive use of American textbooks is also criticized; these texts are considered to incorrectly interpret Canadian phenomena as directly analagous to American. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in comparative psychology at the dawn of the 20th century.

Comparative psychology emerged as part of the "new psychology" that took hold in the United States around 1900. Many of the issues that have occupied comparative psychologists throughout the 20th century were developed as research problems during this period. In some respects, comparative psychology was then an integral and widely respected part of psychology at large; in others, it was already marginalized. Issues emerging during this critical period set the program for the upcoming century and included those of methodology in the conduct of experiments and conceptual issues related to evolution, development, intelligence, and higher processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reappraisal of Wundt's influence on social psychology.

Discusses the social psychology of Wundt and its link to current developments in the constructionist movement in modern psychology. The historical lines of descent from Wundt's experimental psychology to American behaviorist social psychology are traced, and the relationship between Wundt's (1911) Volkerpsychologie to the social scientists who kept alive Wundt's social psychological orientation and who figure as antecedents of postmodern constructionism is delineated. With historical hindsight, the behaviorist program for social psychology may now be seen as an aberrant detour around the fundamental questions of social psychology. The questions asked by Wundt appear to be perennial questions. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why social psychology fails.

Maintains that the failure of social psychology to develop substance and direction has been due primarily to the misguided vision that complex social phenomena can be fruitfully studied by experimental laboratory methods. Many who share this view but maintain their commitment to the experimental method are turning to nonreactive experiments in field settings. Based on matters of ethics and propriety, however, it is inevitable that these will continue in the same pattern of short-term, low-impact studies that predominated in the laboratory. Short-term, low-impact research strategies cannot, by themselves, bring us to the minimal goal of meaningful, general laws of social development and behavior, and social psychologists can only begin to grow toward that goal when the experiment ceases to be the primary modus operandi. (French summary) (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Twenty-first century ethical challenges for psychology.

Foreseeable social and technological changes will force us to reevaluate our thinking about ethically appropriate ways to fulfill our mission of using psychology to advance human health and welfare in the twenty-first century. Three categories of challenge related to societal and technological changes have become particularly evident. First, increasing patterns of delivering services over substantial distances by electronic means (i.e., telepsychology) demand consideration. Second, we must parse our ethical obligations to individuals, to groups, and to society at large as our influence working behind the scenes as "invisible" psychologists grows. Finally, as we witness the accelerating demise of psychiatry, we must take care not to follow a similar path. As we face new ethical challenges, we must continually ask ourselves where our responsibilities lie as individuals and as a profession. We must learn not to repeat the mistakes of the past and focus instead on optimizing the future for a science and practice of psychology focused on human health and welfare. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Plurality in social psychology.

Argues that social psychology should be considered a polyparadigmatic enterprise based on human science social psychology theories and discusses the nature of a paradigm and the social character of paradigm-construction as a knowledge-building industry. Four major approaches of human science social psychology are presented: existential-phenomenology, hermeneutical dialectics, dialogal existentialism, and critical emancipatory theory. These approaches are discussed in terms of the changing meanings of intentionality. "Way of Life Psychology" is presented as a discipline capable of integrating the contributions of the various human science schools of thought in social psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instrumentation in social psychology.

Focuses on various conceptual paradigms that were "instrumented with display or measurement procedures having the potential for relatively standardized usage." The paradigms include problems concerning (a) attitude formation and change, (b) social conformity, (c) game behavior, and (d) group performance. Comment is made on "advantages and disadvantages of the primitive state of instrumentation in the field," and regards the future as making increasing use of more sophisticated instruments. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A social psychologist's perspective on school psychology reform.

Discusses social psychology's experimental approach to understanding social factors influencing human behavior. Social psychology research provides school psychologists with insights for understanding issues regarding professional roles in the face of current school psychology reform. Theory and research on social roles suggests that school psychologists' acquisition of additional educationally relevant roles with an overarching rationale will lead to better adjusted professionals and more useful outcomes. As a result of school psychology reform schools may emerge as experimenting societies, implementing and evaluating innovative social and educational practices. A focus on social and environmental influences, in addition to child-centered factors, can be useful to school psychology efforts to solve educational problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on George Herbert Mead's social psychology.

Attempts to contribute toward the bridging of a communication gap between pychological and sociological approaches to social psychology. Implicitly questioning the dominant view of G. H. Mead's (1922, 1934) work among contemporary sociologists, it outlines the major ideas of this founding father of symbolic interactionist social psychology in behaviorist terms. This interpretation suggests that Mead's theory of human psychology is compatible with and may potentially contribute toward the recent growth of the cognitive approach to social psychology among psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scholarship in psychology: A paradigm for the twenty-first century.

Numerous changes in higher education (e.g., the demand for accountability, threats to tenure, new modes of instruction) and discontent with narrow definitions of scholarship have created the need for a broader and more precise definition of the nature of scholarship psychology. The 5-part definition that we propose includes (a) original research (creation of knowledge), (b) integration of knowledge (synthesis and reorganization), (c) application of knowledge, (d) the scholarship of pedagogy, and (e) the scholarship of teaching in psychology. Scholarly activities require high levels of discipline-specific expertise, are innovative, can be replicated, are documented, can be subject to peer review, and have significance. This broader conceptualization of scholarship will benefit all stakeholders in higher education students—faculty, colleges and universities, the community, and society at large. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)