Review of Toward a Psychology of the Scientist.

Reviews the book, Toward a Psychology of the Scientist by Sonja C. Graver (1981). The major themes of this highly condensed 92 page book are that all sciences are philosophic and that psychological research provides insight into how scientists formulate and revise theories. The author further contends that the development of science would be enhanced if all scientists (including psychologists) understood the primary importance of the role of theory, imagination and creativity in experimentation. The scientific model suggested is that progress in science occurs by way of reformulations of arbitrary world views, and that scientific activities would be enhanced if the subjective and psychological, particularly cognitive, aspects were stressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Concise encyclopedia of psychology.

Reviews the book, Concise encyclopedia of psychology edited by Jing Qicheng (1991). An encyclopedic dictionary, a little larger than the Concise Oxford Dictionary, contains 2800 entries of psychological terms in Chinese. According to the preface, psychology in China has developed very rapidly in the past ten years, increasing the number of psychologists and expanding the field of study. This Encyclopedia was published to help the interpretation of technical terms in psychology, particularly recent ones, and to standardize Chinese translations. It is useful not only for those in China but also for those who are outside China using Chinese as their first or second language. This Encyclopedia is an indispensable reference for any psychologist trying to translate English into Chinese or Chinese into English. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Division of Philosophical Psychology.

Comment regarding the necessity of establishing a Division of Philosophical Psychology in the APA. There are several clear indications that other disciplines and particular scholars in our own discipline are taking cognizance of this problem. Feigl's (see record 1960-03715-001) article "Philosophical Embarrassments of Psychology" is suggestive of the growing concern. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity and Meaning: Comment.

Comments on an article by Robert L. Ebel (see record 1962-05654-001). This article discusses basic problems in psychological testing and measurement, and as such the author touches upon basic problems of scientific psychology as well. According to the commentator the problems the author raises are very well taken. For a while it seems that he will come up with what points to a solution but some reflection shows that although he approached the "truth," he failed to reach it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology Psychologie (f) Psychologie (f).

Reviews the book, Trilingual Psychological Dictionary, Vol. 1: English-French German, Vol. 2: Fran?ais-Allemand-Anglais, Vol. 3: Deutsch-Englisch Franz?sisch edited by Hubert C. J. Duijker and Maria J. van Rijswijk (see record 1977-20007-000). As Duijker states in the introductions, "This work represents the first attempt to provide a list of equivalent psychological terms in three of the major languages." Does this dictionary fill the lack of a psychological dictionary for students and/or professionals who wish to read psychological publications in another language? I can answer this question only conditionally. The answer depends on the degree to which the user, whose mother tongue is one of the three languages and who wants to read a work in one of the other two, is familiar with the second language. None of the widely used German terms for which I cannot immediately think of an English or a French equivalent and which I looked up in the dictionary was listed. I also found a considerable number of translations which are outright incorrect. Such a dictionary as this can hardly be used by someone with only a basic knowledge of another language. It is entirely inadequate for some one who wants to translate a psychological work for publication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology in the States.

Gustad reports on the establishment of a Department of Mental Health in Iowa, a program of voluntary certification in Massachusets, and the participation of the New Jersey Psychological Association in the 2nd Legistative Forum on health and welfare. Information on the New York State Psychological Association and the Oregon Psychological Association are also presented. The establishment of more mental hygiene clinics in Suffok County, NY, certification legislation in Pennsylvania, and action oriented programs in Texas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some verbal materials for the study of concept formation.

Materials are presented which were developed for use in studies of verbal concept formation. The frequency of response tendencies by 153 elementary psychology students to 213 stimulus words (nouns) was determined. The responses were grouped into 40 categories. The elicitation by two or more words of the same responses indicates that the stimulus words can form the basis for concept formation tasks. The associations obtained were restricted since S was allowed to respond only in terms of sense impressions. The percentage of frequency of responses to each stimulus word is presented along with its category designations, percentages of miscellaneous responses are provided, and for each stimulus word is shown the Thorn-dike-Lorge frequency count per million words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Scientific Attack on Brown v. Board of Education, 1954-1964.

Psychologists' work was cited in the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). One criticism of the citation was that psychology could be used to overturn the Brown decision and return the country to segregation. A historical examination of such an attempt to overturn Brown in the early 1960s on the basis of new psychological knowledge shows that psychology was not persuasive in the face of the civil rights movement. The failure of segregationists to overturn Brown with psychological experts underscores how psychology is ineluctably bound to the larger society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The two disciplines of scientific psychology.

"No man can be acquainted with all of psychology today." The past and future place within psychology of 2 historic streams of method, thought, and affiliation—experimental psychology and correlational psychology—is discussed in this address of the President at the 65th annual convention of the APA. "The well-known virtue of the experimental method is that it brings situational variables under tight control… . The correlation method, for its part, can study what man has not learned to control or can never hope to control… . A true federation of the disciplines is required. Kept independent, they can give only wrong answers or no answers at all regarding certain important problems… . Correlational psychology studies only variance among organisms; experimental psychology studies only variance among treatments. A united discipline will study both of these, but it will also be concerned with the otherwise neglected interactions between organismic and treatment variables. Our job is to invent constructs and to form a network of laws which permits prediction." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Scientific Denial of the Real and the Dialectic of Scientism and Humanism.

Comment on "Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a Search for Truth and the Discovery of Solutions" by John T. Cacioppo, Gun R. Semin and Gary G. Berntson (see record 2004-14303-001). The appeal for the unification of psychology is in fashion and Cacioppo et al.'s term "symbiosis" connotes a cooperative and communal practice that is difficult to criticize without being regarded as quarrelsome and cantankerous. As Cacioppo et al. stated, the ultimate goal for a unification in psychology should be "to approach or approximate scientific realism" (p. 221). Thus, iterative practice or not, there is no symbiosis, only a reductionistic approach with a gesture toward including positive qualities of instrumentalism. Cacioppo et al. essentially proposed a check-and-balance system for scientific realism which is the ultimate victor. Ramey and Chrysikou go on to discuss the differences between scientific realism and instrumentalism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

News and notes.

This section of News & Notes provides information for members of APA's Division 26. Topics covered include information about the Society for the History of Psychology and a notice that Ryan Tweney served as guest editor of the May issue of Science & Education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Roles of Instruments in Psychological Research.

What roles have instruments played in psychology and related disciplines? How have instruments affected the dynamics of psychological research, with what possibilities and limits? What is a psychological instrument? This article provides a conceptual foundation for specific case studies concerning such questions. The discussion begins by challenging widely accepted assumptions about the subject and analyzing the general relations between scientific experimentation and the uses of instruments in psychology. Building on this analysis, a deliberately inclusive definition of what constitutes a psychological instrument is proposed. The discussion then takes up the relation between instrumentation and theories and differentiates in greater detail the roles instruments have had over the course of psychology's history. Finally, the authors offer an approach to evaluating the possibilities and limitations of instruments in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of science and the origins of the scientific mind.

Reviews the book, The psychology of science and the origins of the scientific mind by Gregory Feist (see record 2006-02942-000). In this book, Gregory Feist sets out to show two things: that psychology of science can be its own field and that this field has been growing along side of humanity ever since its inception. Feist divides the book into two parts. First, he argues for the legitimacy of the field of psychology of science, addressing relevant research from many sub fields and their applications for the future. Part two delves into the origins and future of the scientific mind. Overall, this book makes one logically consider what science is and is not. It brings about contemplation about how science developed and how humans embraced it. Feist says he wants to take on the applied implications for the formalized study of both the psychology and science and the properties of the scientific mind. His goal is to move the psychology of science from its implicit methods scattered across domains of psychology and make them explicit. He wants to unite researchers scattered across the world to make up a new psychology of science that actively meets, has its own journal, and can educate future researchers. This is all very interesting and indeed possible, as long as the meetings would follow the same integrative genius that is displayed in this book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deficient Strategic Control of Verbal Encoding and Retrieval in Individuals With Methamphetamine Dependence.

Methamphetamine (MA) dependence is associated with deficits in episodic verbal memory, but the cognitive mechanisms underlying such impairments are not known. The authors evaluated a component process model of episodic verbal memory in 87 persons with MA dependence (MA+) and 71 demographically similar non-MA-using controls (MA-). Compared with MA- controls, MA+ participants demonstrated deficient overall learning, free recall, and utilization of semantic clustering, as well as higher rates of repetitions and intrusions. No between-groups differences were evident on measures of serial clustering, retention, or recognition discrimination. Taken together, these findings indicate that MA dependence is associated with deficient strategic (i.e., executive) control of verbal encoding and retrieval, which is consistent with the sequelae of MA-related prefronto-striatal circuit neurotoxicity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tragedy of growing isolation.

Reply to the article by G. W. Albee (see record 1971-08263-001) discussing the conflict between scientific and professional psychology. The current author believes that Albee's article implies medicine and sociology have resolved their similar problems. He believes that with small changes in wording, the article could describe the difficulties between sociologists and social workers or between hospital staff physicians and the American Medical Association. Rather than institutionalize our differences in permanent and separate scientific and professional programs and societies, we should make another attempt at unity and cross-fertilization. The tragedy of growing isolation between scientific and professional areas of psychology should be remedied, not encouraged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of psychology in ONR.

Outlines, with illustrative examples, the nature of psychological research supported by ONR. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rediscovering the history of psychology: Interview with Kurt Danziger.

Kurt Danziger is a senior scholar whose innovative contributions to the history of psychology have received widespread international recognition. This wide-ranging interview covers every aspect of Danziger's work since the 1970s, including his early work on Wundt, his work on psychological methods that culminated in the book Constructing the Subject (1990), and his more recent work on psychological objects in Naming the Mind (1997). It also includes his thoughts on history of psychology in general and the related subject of historical psychology. The interviewer is a former student of Danziger and coeditor of a recent book on Danziger's work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the New England Psychological Association.

The program is listed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)