XVIIth International Congress of Psychology: Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D. C. August 20-26, 1963.

An outline of the program is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychologist looks at language.

In this Presidential Address the author examines language—limited to the simple, declarative, present tense sentence—from the point of view of a learning psychologist. The basic assumption is "that what the sentence does is to shift or transfer meanings, not from person to person, but from sign to sign within the mind of the recipient." Language is not conditioning alone but requires postulation of a "mediating reaction." Animal communication is limited to thing-thing or thing-sign while human language is sign-sign. "Language is a device whereby another person, on the basis of experience with one reality, may be made to react… somewhat differently toward another reality, without any new direct experience with that reality." 90-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

XVIII International Congress of Psychology.

This document announces that for the first time in the history of our science an international congress of psychologists will be convened in the USSR. The XVIII International Congress of Psychology, organized by the Soviet Psychological Society under the auspices of the International Union of Scientific Psychology, will take an outstanding place among other congresses for the scope of the problems which will be discussed at it, as well as for the wide representation of psychologists of different countries who will participate in its work. It will also be distinguished for the character of its organization. The Congress will take place in Moscow between August 4 and 11, 1966. The programme of its plenary sessions will include, along with the opening speech of Prof. A. N. Leontiev, President of the Congress, three lectures which will be delivered by celebrated psychologists of different countries. Prof. Jean Piaget (Switzerland) will devote his lecture to the question of the place of psychology among other sciences; Prof. Neal Miller (USA) will consider the achievements of modern psychophysiology in the field of studying the problem of drives; Prof. A. A. Smirnov (USSR) will lecture on the ways of development of psychology in the Soviet Union. This document discusses the Congress in further detail. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An interactionist looks at the environment.

"The principle of interaction reflects… an adaptive process rather than a random encounter between inner and outer forces. This process involves a polarized accommodation of organism to environment, not only at the level of molar behavior, but in all biological functioning, of which molar behavior is one manifestation… . The most obvious need in evaluating the manifold encounter of organism and environment is a more satisfactory and systematic conceptualization of the environment." If behavior is to be "represented as a multidimensional interaction of the universes of person variables and environmental variables, psychology cannot advance productively until the environment universe is specified." Powerful analytic multivariate methods are necessary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A student looks at graduate training.

Two problems face many of the 2,000 graduate students in psychology in Canada. As the academic job market continues to provide relatively fewer openings for the increasing number of new Ph.D.'s, the new graduate is faced with seeking employment in areas for which he has no training. The idealistic graduate student who wishes to engage in "relevant" research is forced by the type of graduate training he is receiving to do conservative research and to become more and more like his teachers in attitudes and values. The question is raised as to whether or not we wish tomorrow's psychologists to be identical to todays psychologists. Suggestions for changes are offered for consideration by the planners of graduate programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral science at work for Canada: National Research Council laboratories.

The National Research Council is Canada's principal research and development agency. Its 20 institutes are structured to address interdisciplinary problems for industrial sectors, and to provide the necessary scientific infrastructure, such as the national science library. Behavioural scientists are active in five institutes: Biological Sciences, Biodiagnostics, Aerospace, Information Technology, and Construction. Research topics include basic cellular neuroscience, brain function, human factors in the cockpit, human-computer interaction, emergency evacuation, and indoor environment effects on occupants. Working in collaboration with NRC colleagues and with researchers from universities and industry, NRC behavioural scientists develop knowledge, designs, and applications that put technology to work for people, designed with people in mind. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychodynamicist looks at modern behavior therapy.

Discusses the growing rapproachement between psychotherapy based on psychodynamic principles and behavior therapy. Both, in the final analysis, are concerned with the elucidation of the psychological processes by which personality and behavior change is brought about. The present article delineates areas of convergence, with special reference to the "treatment package," patient variables, and the therapeutic interaction. It is concluded that psychotherapy of all varieties is made up of learning, unlearning, and relearning experiences that can be mediated in different ways and that the task of the future is to spell out the conditions that promote or impede such learning. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cognitively oriented psychologist looks at biofeedback.

Argues that emotional processes and their self-regulation are products of mediating cognitive appraisals about the significance of an event for a person's well-being and that the control of somatic processes is an integral aspect of emotional states and their self-regulation. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Announcement of the XVIIth International Congress of Psychology: Washington, D. C., 20-26 August 1963.

About 120 foreign psychologists "and an approximately equal number of their American and Canadian colleagues will be invited by the Program Committee to participate in the program of the Congress." There will also be a few sessions of submitted papers. Major program topics are indicated. The working languages of the Congress will be English and French. American Psychological Association committees for this event are listed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental psychopathology in psychological science.

Although the enterprise of experimental psychopathology has been around for quite some time, the integrative role that it plays in psychological science has not received explicit attention. This issue sits on the backdrop of theoretical and empirical evidence that, as an enterprise, experimental psychopathology has the potential to tie together psychological processes studied both in basic and applied domains. In this article, the authors discuss the nature of experimental psychopathology, focusing on its research agenda, historical perspective, and why and how it can be improved to have more of a direct impact in the study of psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A philosopher looks at neuroscience

A prospective multicenter observational trial was performed to assess the performance and clinical benefit of ultrasonography of the appendix in the routine clinical examination. Included in the study were 2280 patients with acute abdominal pain from 11 surgical departments in Germany and Austria. Ultrasonography of the appendix was performed in 870 (38%) of the patients (range 16-85%). The overall sensitivity of ultrasonography of the appendix was 55% (13-90%), the specificity 95% (range 82-100%), positive predictive value 81% (50-100%), and negative predictive value 85% (68-96%). With respect to single ultrasound scan findings, adequate sensitivity (44%) was achieved only with the target phenomen, not with the other criteria. There were no correlations between the ultrasound findings of the appendix and the diagnostic accuracy of the clinician, the negative appendectomy rate, or the perforated appendix rate. From the study it can be concluded that there is no proven clinical benefit of ultrasound scanning of the appendix in the routine clinical diagnosis.     

Art and science in projective techniques.

Many psychologists seem to feel that lacunae exist between the scientific and utilitarian status of projective techniques. They may either condemn projective techniques for their apparent lack of scientific validity or excessively praise them for their ability to generate artistic and intuitive meaning. The gap between science and art is not irreconcilable. Long ago, Leonardo da Vinci pointed out that sublime art could not occur unless the artist carefully and patiently studied the sciences that pertain to art. For Leonardo there was no immutable division between art and science, and he further felt that good science made for great art. Leonardo's propositions about art and science can also be applied to the field of projective techniques. Careful precision, rigor, and specification (science) has, and can continue to lead to conclusions that are extremely useful in terms of the practical application of projective techniques (art). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a more complete science of development.

The present special issue is devoted to the problems in children's development--sensory, perceptual, cognitive, behavioural, social, and emotional. The scientific study of applied issues or practical problems in the everyday lives of children has only recently become an integral part of mainstream psychological science. In organization, the present volume progresses from sensory or motor-based problems to behavioural and cognitive disorders through to social/emotional difficulties. We could not cover all childhood problems in the available space. Our central goal was to present a representative selection of important, interesting work on major problems in child development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Significant contributors to psychological science.

Comments on the excellent APA report on America's Psychologists (1957). Because this report is certain to be studied and quoted for many years, it seems desirable to note an ambiguity in Table 2 on page 62. A previous chapter has established the representativeness of a sample of 150 as "Significant Contributors" to psychology. These were all drawn--properly for the purpose--from the years 1930 to 1944. In Table 2, we have a listing of the universities producing the largest numbers of these Significant Contributors. That gives us, I think, one significant index of the quality of these universities. Alongside of this listing, however, is a column headed: "Number of Significant Contributors on Current Staff." This column is misleading as an index of the contemporary excellence of the university. The heading inadvertently opens the way to a misleading deduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Outgoing editorial: Bridging science and application.

P. L. Ackerman reviews some of the enduring issues that have come up in reviewing the several hundred papers submitted during his tenure as editor of JEP: Applied. It is his hope that consideration of these issues will make it possible for authors to have a better conception of what constitutes building a bridge between science and application. Ackerman notes that the field remains wide open with opportunities for psychologists to make scientifically based contributions to real-world applications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological science versus the science-humanism antinomy: Intimations of a significant science of man.

"If psychology is to live up to the purview of its very definition, then it must be that science whose problems lie closest to those of the humanities; indeed it must be that area in which the problems of the sciences, as traditionally conceived, and the humanities intersect… . It is clear that psychology needs many individuals having sensitivities overlapping with those of the humanist." Psychology must take the lead in exploring the relations between science and the humanities. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4AK29K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The past and future of the psychology of science.

As the British statesman Edmund Burke once wrote, "Those who do not know history are destined to repeat it." (Not to be confused with George Santana's comment: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."). The fact is that the history of the psychology of science has been a struggle for existence. If we wish to move away from struggle and toward a comfortable existence, then we need to learn lessons from the other disciplines that successfully have made the transition from fledgling field to fully established scientific discipline. The history, philosophy, and sociology of science are just such established disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The behavioral science in the primary grades.

The temper of the times "makes it extremely likely… that the behavioral sciences will be taught in the lower grades." Classroom experiences are summarized. The nature of such a behavioral sciences course, the level at which it should be taught, and the qualifications of the teacher are some of the issues raised. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)