A unique regional program of psychological research and training in the south.

"The Council on Psychological Resources in the South was appointed by the Southern Regional Education Board and met for the first time on July 16-17, 1953 in Atlanta, Georgia… . The Southern Regional Education Board has made a real contribution to the development of psychology as a science and as a profession… ." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Stirling County Study: A research program on relations between sociocultural factors and mental illness.

"Stirling County, located in one of the Canadian Atlantic Provinces, has a population of about 20,000." The Stirling County project "is a research program for the investigation of relations between sociocultural environment and mental illness. The research effort is interdisciplinary and combines extensive with intensive study of both the sociocultural environmental and mental disorder. The subjects of the research are persons who are not undergoing treatment as well as those who are; mental health and mental illness are investigated in the societal as well as in the individual settings in which they develop." The theoretical framework, the primary and subsidiary research operations, and the plan of analysis are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ecological constraints on mental health services.

Proposes 4 principles for community mental health programing that are consistent with an ecological thesis: (1) Assessment methods are focused on the total population rather than on those persons who presently receive a mental health service. (2) Mental health services are designed to reduce a high risk for community service. (3) Professional and research services are created as local community resources. "By initiating the informal coordination of current services, the community mental health program helps to create specific new community services as needed." (4) The program plans for change; this involves mobilizing anticipatory problem-solving resources not only for clients but for professionals as well. A "conception of community mental health work based upon the ecological thesis that adaptive programs change" is presented. (39 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental illness, milieu therapy, and social organization in ward groups.

"It was concluded that as degree of mental illness increases, there is a decrease in social organization and social relationship involving positive or negative feelings. This process appears to be reversed by milieu therapy." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The companion program: Implementing the manpower recommendations of the joint commission on mental illness and health.

There are many barriers to successful recruitment of professional and subprofessional personnel in the mental health professions. The companion program "recruits students from… universities to serve as volunteer companions to mentally ill patients for a full academic year. Students are invited to either select or be assigned to a chronic patient who has minimal or no contact with individuals outside the hospital, and to meet with this patient for one hour on a weekly basis throughout the school year… . The goal that is stressed throughout is that the student must build a feeling of companionship between himself and the patient." The program appears to be "a very significant method for altering the attitudes of people." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graduate training for community clinical psychology.

"In this paper we will review some of the basic principles which seem to underlie the training of psychologists for professional careers in the field of mental health, examine these principles in relation to the developments that have occurred in this field since World War II, explore the implications of these factors for graduate training in psychology in general and clinical psychology in particular, and describe a training program in which we are attempting to apply these principles." The program at the University of Nebraska "has developed over the last 13 years." In it there has been a shift from "teaching psychological tests to teaching the use of psychologist tests as an aid to understanding people's problems." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and national health care.

Presents the position of the American Psychological Association concerning the national movement toward a "comprehensive and coordinated system of health services which will be of high quality and equally accessible to all persons." Provisions for recognition and management of emotional and mental disorders and for the optimum use of all qualified health care professionals are urged. Guidelines for the development of a health care program are enumerated and include concern for accessibility of services, patient rights, adequate funding, consumer roles, grievance provisions, program evaluation, and research into the system itself. Criteria for evaluating the adequacy of proposed legislation for a health care system in terms of the mental health provisions and the utilization of psychological services are also presented. It is concluded that "psychologists, by training and experience, have the qualifications to provide independent mental health services and should be permitted to do so." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental illness and mental retardation: Message from the President of the United States relative to mental illness and mental retardation.

2 health problems of critical size and tragic impact are mental illness and mental retardation. "There are now about 800,000 such patients in this Nation's institutions—600,000 for mental illness and over 200,000 for mental retardation." A 3-fold attack is proposed: (a) Ascertain causes and eradicate them. (b) Strengthen underlying resources of knowledge and of skilled manpower. (c) Strengthen and improve facilities serving the mentally ill and mentally retarded. A national program for mental health is proposed which emphasizes comprehensive community mental health centers, improved care in state mental institutions, and expansion of research activities and increase in professional manpower. A national program to combat mental retardation emphasizing prevention, community services, and research is also proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test burning: Part II.

A research program, sponsored by the Rip Van Winkle Foundation, concerned with mental health in rural areas was started in 1955. A few members of the Hudson Post of the American Legion opposed the organized "mental health movement." Local newspaper articles linked "mental health with 'world citizenship, one worldism, internationalism, communism, and socialism.'… Actually, the ruckus did not blow up until the period of data collection from the children was in its last week. Data from only three children were destroyed in compliance with the wishes of their parents." Details of the background and the problem are presented. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2AA37E. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human engineering research—who should do it and why.

"The in-service laboratory groups, the universities, and private consultants and consulting organizations most certainly should be conducting the major research programs, but the human engineering staff that is part of an engineering manufacturing organization cannot and should not undertake a major human engineering research program for every need of the design engineer." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality structure and group structure: An interpretative study of their relationship through an event-structure hypothesis.

"The attitude of favor or disfavor, developed by workers in a large business organization to 2 experimental programs with contrasting patterns of allocating authority appears to be a function, as was predicted, of the interaction between the personality structure of the individual and the structure of the work-program in which he is operating. Those individuals who… are 'suited' to the program they are in, tend to feel a greater satisfaction with it and a greater degree of liking for it than do those whose trend structures are 'unsuited' to their program." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Computer simulation of thinking.

"The nub of the simulation problem involves the use of similar types of 'programs' of 'instructions' to the machine in order to reproduce the steps an individual goes through in thinking out the solution to a difficult problem." Simulation methods "have a tremendous role in sharpening our formulations concerning mental processes and phenomena." The "simulation of human responses has the same overwhelming advantages for our understanding of behavioral phenomena as similar methods in other sciences." Research "on simulation of complex psychological processes is yielding results of increasing importance." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2CM87H. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical and nonclinical aspects of program development consultation.

Although program development can have therapeutic benefits for an organization and for its members, it is inappropriate to assume that consultation is simply therapy for groups; there are differences in goals and in methods. Organizational consultants can make errors if they work with organizations as therapists do with groups or treat organization members as if they were patients. On the other hand, both organizational consultants and psychotherapists need clinical sensitivity and skills at developing a setting of trust and openness. Both professionals encourage specificity and checking of assumptions and try to make explicit that which had been covert. Both groups find it effective to work with the "client system" rather than a specific "identical patient." Consultants working with groups can profit from clinical insight about the resistance of individuals and groups to change. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research survey: State mental health programs.

"In preparation for the 1959 meeting of chief psychologists in state mental health programs a questionnaire on research was prepared and sent to 77 psychologists who were either functioning as chief psychologists in state programs" or in similar positions. Replies were received from 39 individuals, representing 30 states. "Evaluation of treatment was listed most frequently as an area in need of research." At least 45 different types of ongoing research projects were listed. "Three factors were emphasized as the main obstacles to research in the state programs: lack of personnel… lack of funds… emphasis on service, with subsequent lack of time for research." Psychologists were "seen as the individuals most involved in mental health research in state programs." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religious experience and psychological conflict.

"I shall center my attention upon the constructive aspects of the profounder variety of psychological conflict to which we give the name of 'schizophrenia.' I shall submit and defend the position that psychological conflict, even in its schizophrenic manifestations, has religious significance." There are "forms of mental illness which are manifestations of healing power analogous to fever or inflammation of the body." An illustrative case history is presented. "Fundamental mental disorder is best understood as an attempt to deal with an intolerable sense of personal failure and guilt… . Other things being equal, the outcome of an acute schizophrenic episode is likely to be constructive insofar as it represents an honest attempt on the part of the patient to grapple with his real difficulties… . In order to understand either mental disorder or religious experience, the one should be studied in the light of the other." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Committee on the Scientific and Professional Aims of Psychology: Preliminary Report.

"This report concerns some of the issues involved in the increasing diversification of psychology." Focus was "on problems of professionalization in clinical psychology in order: (a) to deal with the problems involving the largest number of psychologists, and (b) to make it possible to speak more specifically about issues." The "training of clinical psychologists for the practice of psychotherapy should be established as a new doctoral program within the university." Interdisciplinary training is encouraged. "Generally we favor awarding a degree other than the PhD at the end of such doctoral training." "None of the present models for training of psychotherapists, whether within clinical psychology, medicine, or social work, are satisfactory means for developing competent practitioners able to meet the needs or expectations of society." Guidelines for legislation are suggested. It was suggested that "perhaps as much as 50% of the [APA Convention] program should be composed of invited talks and papers which would be either integrative in their nature or which would open up new areas in which significant advances are being made." The Committee has proposed suggestions rather than solutions to problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality change as a result of an experimental change of environmental conditions.

To what extent can personality change, when it occurs, be understood in terms of effect of specific environmental conditions? In a large clerical organization, two experimental groups were created and subjected for more than a year to different programs of control. A paper-and-pencil questionnaire designed specifically to measure 26 personality trends to which each of the programs had some degree of relevance was administered near the beginning of the experimental period and about a year later at the end." The two programs "were seen to have profound effects on the subjects' attitudes toward the company and satisfactions in it." A table of before-after correlations and incidence of change is presented. "Twelve changes in the predicted direction prove significant at the .05 level of confidence. Six changes significant at the .05 level occur in a direction opposite to that predicted… . Although somewhat ambiguous, the data seem to indicate that measurable change can be effected by a persisting change in environmental conditions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is Psychology Losing Status as an Academic Discipline?

The recent attack on higher education in America has stimulated many psychologists to examine the role of psychology in higher education. Many critics have labeled universities as being "supermarkets" or "service stations." Some of the attacks have specifically referred to courses in personal adjustment and mental hygiene as being "service" courses. Some critics have questioned the justification of including such courses in an undergraduate program. I am not concerned here with the justification of such criticism. I do feel, however, that the attacks point up the trend toward overemphasis in psychology on the service functions of our field of study. In the eyes of the public and in the thinking of leaders in other academic disciplines, I fear that we are losing the position as an academic discipline that we enjoyed perhaps twenty or thirty years ago. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awards for Distinguished Professional Contributions 1986: Nadine Lambert.

Nadine Lambert, one of the 1986 recipients of the Distinguished Professional Contributions Award, is recognized for making "numerous contributions to the professional practice of psychology. In 1960, Dr. Lambert was among the first to advocate and support multilevel legislation for children with learning and mental health problems in California. In 1965, she initiated and developed the first doctoral level professional school program in California. She is also responsible for the adaptation, validation, and standardization of the AAMD-SE Adaptive Behavior Scale. Dr. Lambert's research on the social and the psychological antecedents of various childhood and adolescent mental health problems, as well as her work with hyperactive children, has contributed significantly to the improved treatment and understanding of many childhood and adolescent behavioral problems." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological processes and mental states.

Comments on D. Kipnis's (see record 199707781-001) article that argues against the use of psychological processes as a basis for the explanation of social behavior. The present author concerns himself with Kipnis's use of "psychological processes" and "mental states" as synonyms. He claims that Kipnis overstepped his argument by generalizing his conclusion from the term "mental states" to "psychological processes." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)