Behavioural science and behavioural medicine.

A new field of endeavor for applied psychology is the development of behavioral medicine. One of its applications lies in rehabilitation therapy, in the study and use of EMG biofeedback for the treatment of the neuromuscular disorders of stroke hemiplegia. The background of this work is reviewed, and problems are outlined that require exploration (e.g., whether biofeedback works best in conjunction with physical therapy, what are the best techniques, and what kind of patient will respond). (French summary) (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioural medicine, clinical reasoning and technical advances.

Discusses some anticipated developments in behavioral medicine and argues that psychologists can (and should) make an especially useful contribution to the understanding of the key intellectual activity in medical practice—clinical reasoning. The debate about the competing merits of statistical or clinical prediction, which occupied early clinical psychologists, takes on renewed and wider significance in the process of expanding clinical psychology from its psychiatric base to include all of the branches of medicine. It is maintained that clinical psychologists will be doing less and less in the way of direct testing and more examining of the nature of psychological testing and performance. Also, in rehabilitation medicine, including geriatric work, psychologists can make a large contribution to the development of compensatory and prosthetic devices and environments. (French abstract) (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral science, engineering, and poetry revisited.

Forty years ago, Lehrman (1971) identified 2 orientations to the study of animal behavior. The natural history orientation conducted field and lab research designed to reveal how animals cope with the circumstances of their natural environment. Such research reveals the diversity among different types of animals and differences between the world of animals and the world of humans (i.e., “poetry”). In contrast, the anthropocentric orientation studies animals either to generate animal-derived general laws applicable to humans or to provide experimental information that, for ethical and practical reasons, cannot be acquired from human research. The primary motivation for the anthropocentric orientation is to provide workable models for investigating specifically human problems (i.e., “engineering”). Evidence is presented from the study of bird song that demonstrates the contribution that the “poetic” approach can make to anthropocentric (“engineering”) concerns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioural medicine: Preview of an emerging field.

Attempts to define the field of behavioral medicine, using examples of possible research problems, past research, and presently funded projects in the US and Canada to expand the definition. (French summary) (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioural medicine: A process for managing performance problems.

Suggests that behavioral medicine as a treatment program provides an excellent model for effective management of complex medical cases. The present authors describe a process for integrating, coordinating, and effectively applying medical and psychological principles to complex cases of work-performance deficiency in which there is some degree of medical involvement. This process is designed to yield many benefits to employees and employers: It optimizes medical and behavioral treatment, minimizes risks, reduces absenteeism, lowers disability costs, prevents arbitrations, increases productivity, provides both employer and employee with objective data on which vocational decisions can be based, and, above all, helps the patient. The process involves the coordination of a company's medical staff, specialists in behavioral medicine, the company's human resource management personnel, and the line managers in the company, who deal with those employees referred for assessment and/or treatment. General outcome data are presented from a behavioral medicine unit over 5 yrs, which illustrate the successful application of this process. (French abstract) (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between basic sciences and medicine revisited

1. The role of basic research in medical institutions and in particular in Medical Schools is discussed. 2. Clinical practice is characterized, in its technical aspects, as a branch of biological technology. 3. It is suggested that the main functions of basic research practiced in medical institutions is to promote the interaction between physicians and scientists in other fields and to train physicians in the practices of other scientists. 4. It is suggested that the introduction of basic research in medical institutions implies: the recruitment of scientists from non-medical disciplines; a policy of funding that does not favour exclusively the clinical sector; the setting up of a regular graduate program, based on the scientifically active groups and adequately regulated.     

Comments on using alternatives to normal theory statistics in social and behavioural science.

Comments on the article by M. A. Hunter and R. B. May (see record 1994-24054-001) on the myths and misconceptions of parametric and nonparametric statistics, particularly with reference to power, robustness, scale of measurement, the null hypothesis, and generality of application. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioural medicine: Managing individual or corporate health? Comment on Cott and Pavloski.

Comments on A. Cott and R. P. Pavloski's (see record 1986-07843-001) criticism of the current problem-oriented approach of behavioral medicine and their proposal of a behavioral medicine process model as a more general application of behavioral medicine to health-related problems. It is argued that the model proposed appears to have little to do with the essential goals of behavioral medicine. Rather, it can be referred to as a model for corporate health since it seeks to maximize productivity by minimizing health-related performance deficiencies and absenteeism. Since no evidence is presented to demonstrate that the intervention process resulted in improved health, changes in productivity cannot be attributed unequivocally to a behavioral-medicine intervention. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Philosophy of science in doctoral nursing education revisited

Because every scientific theory and all research methods are tied to some philosophical framework, it is important that scientists within a given discipline be aware of the philosophical orientations that serve as the basis for developing theory and advancing knowledge. Nurse scientists have been challenged recently to examine the discipline's philosophical underpinnings in order to understand the evolutionary process of nursing science. The inclusion of the study of philosophy of science in doctoral nursing curriculum has remained a topic of periodic discourse. Whereas some assert that it promotes the essential process of philosophical reflection necessary for scientific exploration of relevant phenomenon, others contend that nurse scientists' preoccupation with this issue has diverted their attention from the real business of nursing science--that of knowledge development that will lead to legitimization of nursing as a discipline. Philosophy of science provides a useful frame of reference in which to appreciate the unfolding of nursing as a discipline. It should not be viewed as a distraction but rather a critical step in the transformation of the doctoral student into a productive nurse scientist. Doctoral programs remain the most logical place in which to educate future scholars regarding nursing's unique philosophical foundations and their implications for scientific inquiry and continued knowledge development. Creating and maintaining liaisons between nursing and philosophy departments--as well as requiring courses that emphasize the interrelationships among philosophy of science, nursing theory, and nursing research--are just a few of the strategies whereby doctoral programs can actively promote advancement of the discipline.     

The art and science of dream interpretation: Isakower revisited

Dream imagery presents a special opportunity to lead patient and analyst through the patient's network of memories to the discovery of unconscious memories that have complicated and interfered with the patient's attempts to resolve important life problems. This is an important, perhaps indispensable, first step on the way to successful working through to solutions that are more rational and realistic than the neurotic symptoms that brought the patient to treatment in the first place. Theoretical and empirical rationales are presented for a technical approach to dreams that takes full advantage of the special opportunities that working with dream imagery provides: for deepening the psychoanalytic process and for acquainting the patient with principles of mental function applicable to aspects and phases of the analytic process that he/she will encounter as the work progresses.     

Behavioural and demographic characteristics of attenders at two genitourinary medicine clinics in England

The authors present a review of the current literature regarding electrical stimulation with special focus on the merits of its uses in wound healing. Literature from a basic science, animal studies and clinical investigations are reviewed. The literature seems to suggest that electrical stimulation can effect wound healing, but the method of delivery remains uncertain.     

Behavioural research in telematics.

Discusses telematics, a new field of behavioral research in Canada that has grown with the technical developments in which computers and telecommunications have been combined. Three domains of behavioral research reflect relationships between humans and the technology and use the evidence and methods of different areas of psychology: (1) interface studies address perception and performance questions, (2) dialog studies focus on cognitive processes, and (3) impact studies investigate social relations and how institutions and individuals are affected by telematics. Studies conducted during the past 5 yrs by the Behavioural Research and Evaluation division of the Department of Communications, Government of Canada, are described in each of these 3 domains. Behavioral research in telematics is expected to be an increasingly important activity in which psychologists may play an active part as the technology disseminates. (French abstract) (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Debating mental illness: Implications for science, medicine, and social policy.

Suggests that the debate over the existence of mental illness can be resolved if 2 wholly unrelated issues are separated from one another: (a) the conceptual status of the psychological variables determining deviant behavior and (b) the appropriate response of society to individuals exhibiting certain behavioral characteristics. Regarding the 1st issue, sound philosophy of science dictates that the psychological variables determining deviant behavior are not physical structures but hypothetical constructs. Neither side of the mental illness debate seems to have any quarrel with this conclusion. Regarding the 2nd issue, the 2 sides of the debate do not seem to have any fundamental disagreement over behavioral ideals. Moreover, they appear to agree that methods of achieving such ideals be selected for specific efficacy. The real disagreement seems to be over professional prerogatives and the legal/ethical status of the behaviorally aberrant. It is suggested that these issues be addressed directly and the empty debate over the existence of mental illness be abandoned. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive science and science education.

Discusses science education from a cognitive orientation that begins with the idea that to understand something, one must integrate it with already existing knowledge schemata. The paradox of science education is that its goal is to impart new schemata to replace the student's extant ideas that differ from the scientific theories being taught. Studies that illustrate the extent of the mismatch between the student's schemata and the expert's schemata are reviewed, and implications for instruction and for cognitive theories of learning are identified. Several characterizations of the differences between naive and scientific explanations are contrasted: the view from the cognitive science literature on the novice–expert shift, from the history of science on theory change, and from science educators and the works of Piaget. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rosenhan revisited.

The author revived the methodology used by David Rosenhan in his controversial 1973 study, titled "On Being Sane in Insane Places" (Rosenhan, see record 1973-21600-001) in order to evaluate whether progress has occurred in the mental health field over the past several decades. In a seminal study by Rosenhan (1973), 8 people without any history of psychiatric illness presented themselves at various mental hospitals. Each of these pseudopatients arrived at the admissions office complaining of a single (feigned) symptom: vague auditory hallucinations. They were all admitted to the hospital, and their average length of stay was 19 days, despite the fact that once they were on the unit, they ceased feigning the symptom and behaved normally. Rosenhan claimed that the results of this study illustrated the powerful role of context in determining how people's behavior is regarded and raised serious questions about the validity of psychiatric diagnoses. The present study is a replication of sorts, modified to suit the contemporary, postdeinstitutionalization state of mental health care. The findings suggest that a significant shift has occurred in mental health care since 1973. At the time of the original study by Rosenhan (1973), the troubling issue was the ease with which people could receive an unwarranted diagnosis and unnecessary treatment for a nonexistent mental disorder. In today's mental health care environment, the troubling issue is the difficulty involved in obtaining treatment that is warranted for conditions that are present. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)