Peace revisited.

Replies to comments by Ralph H. Gundlach on an article, attributed to an E. J. McGuigan, "Crash Research Program for Peace" (see record 1959-08088-001). The present author, F. J. McGuigan, states that Gundlach either says or implies that in the article in question it is assumed that principles of individual behavior are applicable to groups, that such factors as "hurt pride, jealously [sic], or social pressure. Now it may well be that these are proper assertions to make about his position, or in fact they may not be proper. Similarly Gundlach's assertions in addition to those above may or may not be true. But whether or not these things are true is really irrelevant to the article in question for none of them are either asserted or denied, as even a cursory reading should show. The investigation was merely an attempt to obtain a sample of reactions from individuals who might influence international policy on the question of research on the problem of warfare. Clearly any restrictions on how to attack such a problem by stating limiting assumptions at this time would be premature. In any event, Gundlach's interest, in peace is to be praised. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research Program for Peace.

Comments on an article by E. J. McGuigan (see record 1959-08088-001). According to the commentator, this article carries a number of confusing assumptions which make it very difficult for the respondents to talk to the question. The article is essentially a letter raising questions and requesting information about encouraging nonphysical sciences (social and biological) to solve problems of "our very survival." To the commentator, the author's logic seems to be than an organism's "aggressive tendencies" are at the root of fighting among individuals; that fighting among nations-the phenomena of war-is another example or extension of fighting among individuals; therefore, to learn how to stop wars among nations, we need a research program to study the individual's aggressive tendencies and ways of controlling them. The commentator states that the assumption of an equation between fighting among persons and international warfare seems to ignore the extensive transformations of individual drives and instincts in the socialization of the individual, and the fabric of society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A proposal for peace research.

A National Institute of Peace Research should be established to promote the role of psychology in bringing about peace through the application of research to practice; the study of social organization within societies and between nations; and the implementation of scientific programs of international data collection, information exchange, and training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Man-into-space: A tool and program for research in the social sciences.

The announcement of plans to launch the first earth satellites provides the opportunity to begin an unparalleled series of studies concerning processes as they occur in our culture and in less complex cultures; the opportunity to undertake a systematic series of studies in depth and over time, tracing out the evolution of differential impacts of a radical invention on many aspects of the human complex. Such studies could make significant contributions to our understanding of the dynamics of acculturation. Areas of study might involve; "Knowledge and understanding of technical concepts associated with MIS" (man into space), "The broad values and beliefs people have concerning MIS" and "The present and future perceptions that people have of the role of MIS in their own lives." The subject of MIS forms an ideal tool for studying the processes of social change, acculturation, and perceptual reorganization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Financial support for research in psychology and related areas.

"Financial support for psychological research has increased as psychologists have demonstrated their capabilities of contributing significantly to developments on a broad front ranging from the biological to the social sciences." As an aid to persons seeking information on agencies and foundations providing financial support for research in psychology and related areas, the American Psychological Association's Board of Scientific Affairs has compiled a list of sources; these are listed in 2 general sections—federal agencies and private foundations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incentive program decreases no-shows in nontreatment substance abuse research.

This study examined the use of a low-cost incentive program to decrease the rate of unanticipated no-shows in a nontreatment study of the genetics of substance dependence. Low-cost retail items (such as calling cards or gift certificates) were offered contingent on attendance at the first scheduled research appointment. Although the intervention did not result in an increase in the rate of attendance at appointments, it reduced the likelihood of unanticipated no-shows by almost 50%. This reduction was accompanied by a significant increase in advance cancellations. Despite limitations due to the study's A-B design, this research demonstrates that it may be possible to use modest incentives to increase the efficiency of research enrollment and increase service provision for substance abusers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology research for environmental policy.

As Environment Minister, I have had the unique opportunity to travel across the country, meeting individual Canadians who are working for the environment in their own communities. As a government, it is our responsibility to ensure that the policies and programs are in place to support their work. It is also our responsibility to try to spur others on to similar action, and to build public support for a sustainable environment. We cannot do this if we do not adequately understand the links between attitude, behaviour, and preservation of our environment. I commend the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science for focussing on the behavioural origins of environmental solutions. I hope that the issues raised in the articles contained herein spur many of you to consider how research can help us answer some of the questions I have raised. The participation of the behavioural sciences is essential, not only to the success of environment protection, but to its very feasibility. Well-conceived research is essential in order to engage and retain public support and thus devise responses that are both environmentally sound and economically possible. Here is a challenge worthy of your expertise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of APA members in one large educational research program.

Russell's summary article "Contemporary Issues of Concern to Psychologists" (1958) included a brief discussion of several possible federal solutions to the need for increased educational research with a reference to the current federal program designed to facilitate educational research: the Cooperative Research Program of the United States Office of Education. Russell indicated that the APA had expressed official interest in this program. The thought occurred that it might be of interest to know the extent to which APA members were involved in this program. For the 252 projects for which there was information available, 136 had or have one or more APA members as Project Directors. It would seem that psychologists do have an interest in the Cooperative Research Program, and are participating in this educational research enterprise. (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)     

The role of motivation, responsibility, and integrative complexity in crisis escalation: Comparative studies of war and peace crises.

Drawing on D. G. Winter's (1993) comparison of 1914 and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the author identified 8 paired crises (1 escalating to war, 1 peacefully resolved). Documents (diplomatic messages, speeches, official media commentary) from each crisis were scored for power, affiliation, and achievement motivation; text measures of responsibility and activity inhibition; and integrative complexity. Aggregated effect-size results show that war crises had significantly higher levels of power motivation and responsibility, whereas peace crises showed trends toward higher integrative complexity and achievement motivation. Follow-up analyses suggested that these results are robust with respect to both sides in a crisis, type of material scored, and historical time. The power motive results extend previous findings, but the responsibility results suggest that responsibility plays a paradoxical role in war. Future research directions are sketched, and the role of psychological content analysis in monitoring the danger of war is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral sciences.

Reviews the book, The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral sciences by Neil Mck. Agnew and Sandra W. Pyke (see record 2007-07794-000). This book is an attempt to introduce a student or beginning researcher to the concepts and methods associated with doing good research in the behavioural sciences. The book is divided into six major parts, dealing in turn with the nature of science and observation; experimental methods; survey, archival and developmental methods; statistics; report writing and ethics; and theory building. The book is well produced and well organized. Specific exemplars of topics under consideration are included in boxes which give typical case reports, experimental designs, sample findings, and so forth. These boxed materials are good illustrations of and extrapolations from the material which the main body of the chapter tends to deal with. The writing style is clear and generally concise. Occasionally there are sparks of fantasy and humour which help to enliven long methodological passages. Overall, this is a well written and useful text. It is a difficult task to sustain interest and continuity in a book which deals almost completely with methodological and statistical issues. The authors have done a remarkably good job in this regard, and I would probably rate this as one of the better books in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The behavioral sciences and survival.

"World peace is the world's Number 1 priority. Reduction of tension is an indispensable precondition to an enduring peace." Many challenges in human relations exist including deep racial tension, problems of elderly retired citizens, frequent crimes of violence, labor-management bitterness, job displacement anxiety, and high rate of high school dropouts; answers are required to such great social problems. A nuclear sword hangs over mankind. "The behavioral sciences can help us resolve the awesome dilemmas we face." Our destiny must not be mutual annihilation. "There can be no more important mission for the behavioral sciences than contributions to human survival." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Roles for psychologists in the "maintenance of peace."

The following are discussed: Opinions Concerning the General Issue; Current Practices in "Maintenance of Peace" (International cooperation, Compromise, Arms regulation, Persuasion, Deterrent power); Contributions by Psychologists (Search for Psychological Components, Summarizing and Integrating Current Information, Research, Application of Current Knowledge and Skills; Collaboration with Other Interested Disciplines); Contributions by APA (Extensions of Present APA Programs, An APA Program in National and International Affairs); and Prospects. 11 suggestions are made concerning an American Psychological Association Program in national and international affairs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of What’s behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences.

Reviews the book, What’s behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences by Brent D. Slife and Richard N. Williams (1995). As the book's subtitle indicates, the authors' purpose is to assist the reader in Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences, a worthy objective not likely to be realized simply through a love affair with "information" and its packaging. Slife and Williams state their mission clearly: "Presenting (behavioral sciences') hidden assumptions, along with their costs and consequences, is our task in this book. Whether you are a student of the behavioral sciences, therapist, educator, businessperson, or simply a consumer of behavioral science information, you will need to know the implicit ideas in that information. What are the main interpretations of the data by scientists? What alternative methods are available for gathering knowledge? What ideas are embedded in the usual approaches to abnormality and treatment? Are there other ideas available for generating solutions to human problems? Do conventional approaches to business or education include assumptions about the world or human nature that are questionable or unacceptable to the people who use them? We attempt to answer these and many other questions." In most respects, Slife and Williams do a splendid job at this. Many of the central conceptual issues Slife and Williams have raised have been treated before (by, among others, the mentor of both authors and the scholar to whom they have dedicated their work, Joseph Rychlak, but I know of no work the equal of this one in presenting the material in a way so accessible to previously uninitiated students and the intelligent and interested lay public. Surely this book will be welcomed by those scholars and educators who would wish to move psychology and the other behavioral sciences into the 21st century shorne of their positivistic leanings and empiricist pretensions, and re-oriented toward a more apposite science of human nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pigeons in a pelican.

"This is the history of a crackpot idea, born on the wrong side of the tracks intellectually speaking, but eventually vindicated in a sort of middle class respectability. It is the story of a proposal to use living organisms to guide missiles—of a research program during World War II called 'Project Pigeon' and a peace-time continuation at the Naval Research Laboratory called 'ORCON,' from the words 'organic Control.' " Major sections are: Project Pelican, Orcon, and The Crackpot Idea. Wide-ranging speculation about human affairs, "supported by studies of compensating rigor, will make a substantial contribution toward that world of the future in which… there will be no need for guided missiles." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A personal adjustment television program.

"This article describes some of our experiences in presenting a television program on personal adjustment on a commercial station over a period of one year. It is also an announcement of the availability of 13 half-hour kinescope recordings of these programs through the Educational TV and Radio Center." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Government support of psychological research: fiscal year 1954.

A second annual summary of government support of research in psychology showing sums spent by government bureaus, fields of psychology, and geographic regions. Data for 1953 and 1954 are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Southern regional mental health program focuses on development of training and research.

"The American psychological profession is taking a leading role in the nation's first regional program to improve mental health and combat mental disease which the Southern Regional Education Board is conducting." The program reached its operational stage with the organization of the Southern Regional Council on Mental Health Training and Research in Atlanta on July 11-12, 1955, following 18 months of surveys and planning. The organization, problems, and activities of the Southern program are discussed. State committees have "… agreed that the need for new knowledge is as acute as the personnel shortage." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a fair and realistic research salary scale in government.

The problem of devising and maintaining an appropriate salary structure for research workers in government agencies exists. Four "… generally accepted notions in personnel philosophy… " are cited briefly and rejected as inapplicable to the classification of research positions. Comparisons between GS grades and university research positions are indicated. The author proposes that "… the evaluation of the research job can, administratively, be only a matter for decision by personnel authorities who depend professionally upon a scientific panel… ." The problem of "… establishing and maintaining effective research salary schedules… " can be grasped and solved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A practicum training program.

"It is the purpose of this paper to describe the development of a state hospital practicum program." "The Southeast Louisiana Hospital from its inception was planned as a facility which would offer unique opportunities in training and research for its professional personnel… . The present census of the hospital is about 360 patients." Fellows in clinical psychology have opportunities for training in diagnostic services, in psychotherapy, and in research. The nature of opportunities for experience in each of these areas is briefly outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)