International Humanitarian Award.

Presents a citation for Karen L. Hanscom, who received the 2001 International Humanitarian Award, for "her commitment to human rights, to the healing of torture victims, and to educating the world community about torture." The International Humanitarian Award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian services and activism by psychologists, including professional and volunteer work conducted primarily in the field with underserved populations. Accompanying the citation are a biography of the recipient and her award address, entitled "Treating Survivors of War Trauma and Torture." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Center for Victims of Torture-Guinea 2004-2005 International Mental Health Team: International Humanitarian Award.

Presents the citation for the Center for Victims of Torture--Guinea 2004-2005 International Mental Health Team, who received the International Humanitarian Award "for their outstanding commitment to the healing of torture victims and to educating the world community about torture and war trauma." A brief profile of the Center is presented, as well as the Center's award address, entitled Trauma Healing in Refugee Camps in Guinea: A Psychosocial Program for Liberian and Sierra Leonean Survivors of Torture and War (see record 2006-21079-047). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and United Nations human rights efforts.

The American Psychological Association Council in February 1987 passed a resolution declaring that "the discipline of psychology, and the academic and professional activities of psychologists, are relevant for securing and maintaining human rights" and resolving that "the APA applauds the ongoing efforts of the United Nations to defend and protect human rights and undertakes to recommend the main UN human rights instruments and documents to the attention of its boards, committees, and membership at large." To help to implement this resolution, the present article first provides information about the development of human rights concepts and instruments; treaties and declarations concerning torture are used as examples, and the impact of these international agreements is shown in a recent history-making U.S. legal decision. Second, the article reviews APA human rights policies and actions and offers some conclusions about them. Third, it calls attention to a number of specific international statements of human rights that are relevant to psychology. Fourth, the article suggests some further steps that APA could take to implement its resolution. Finally, it provides references to sources that include the texts of the United Nations' human rights instruments and information about them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of torture-related injuries on long-term psychological distress in a Punjabi Sikh sample.

Torture survivors often report chronic debilitating physical and psychological distress. Prior research on the relationship between physical and psychological trauma suggests that the 2 are not independent. Injury sustained during torture may increase the likelihood of subsequent distress as either a moderator or mediator. For long-term psychopathology in a sample of Punjabi Sikh survivors of human rights violations (N = 116), chronic injuries mediated the path between torture and posttraumatic stress disorder, specifically the severity of numbing symptoms. Although injuries were associated with major depression, torture was not, and injuries did not moderate the relationship between major depression and torture. Chronic injuries may represent trauma severity or persistent traumatic cues. These findings emphasize connections between physical and psychological trauma and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to torture treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

International Humanitarian Award: Karen L. Hanscom.

Karen L. Hanscom received the 2001 International Humanitarian Award. She was given this award for her commitment to human rights, to the healing of torture victims, and to educating the world community about torture. She has touched the lives of hundreds of women who survived the civil war in Guatemala through her work with the Puentes de Paz health project. Her training programs have contributed to increased understanding of the needs of torture victims by a wide variety of professionals and community groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deceiving experimental subjects.

A survey to obtain "… some insight into how they felt about it themselves… " was conducted with "… subjects who had actually been deceived in an experiment… ." Results indicated "… very little evidence that these subjects were disturbed by being deceived." The author speculates that "… being deceived as an experimental subject is more of a problem when viewed in the abstract than when it actually happens to the individuals concerned." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior control and social responsibility.

"It is in the field of psychotherapy that the issues of the moral and ethical implications of behavior control first arose as a relevant problem." We "cannot avoid facing the issue of values." Psychology should "develop techniques of approaching experimentally the basic problem of social and ethical issues involved in behavior control." In connection with this, the psychologist-researcher "should undertake the task of contact with the public rather than leaving it to sensationalists and popularizers." Behavior control "represents a relatively new, important, and very useful development in psychological research." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychiatry and political repression in the Soviet Union.

Discusses how psychiatric facilities in the USSR have been used as instruments of political repression. Aspects of the Soviet legal system and Soviet psychiatry that have contributed to this state of affairs are discussed, along with the "therapeutic" regimens (including punitive chemical treatments and physical torture) applied to dissidents in psychiatric hospitals. A case study is presented, and avenues of action for American psychologists interested in alleviating the problem are suggested. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Let's reduce statistical drudgery. III.

SETAR (serial event timer and recorder) "… is based on techniques used in electronic digital computers" and is employed "… to reduce the drudgery of record reading and computation." SETAR "… can be thought of as doing the same work as a polygraph with eight electromagnetically operated pens, some or all of which could be connected to the apparatus of the task being studied." Utility of the apparatus is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental analysis of behavior.

"It is my position that the experimental analysis of behavior is essentially the same whether we are dealing with the behavior of the paramecium or the man, whether we are analyzing behavior that appears to be simple or that which appears to be complex." The experimental analysis of behavior is independent of behavioral complexity. "No behavior is too complicated to analyze experimentally, if only the proper techniques can be discovered and developed." Trends in the experimental analysis of behavior include (1) The attempt "to analyze ever increasingly complex behavioral processes." (2) The "increasing importance being given to developmental investigations." (3) The "development of interlaboratory research." (4) A "developing belief that the experimental method as a method for the analysis of behavior is the common property of all behavioral scientists." (5) The adaptation of "method to problems rather than to adapt problems to method… ." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology in flux: The academic-professional bipolarity.

The "main fission in psychology is that between academic psychology and professional psychology." Clinical, industrial, and social psychology, among other applied fields, have expanded dramatically since World War II. Experimental psychology itself is now being professionalized. Serious problems stem from the fact that most graduate curricula are oriented to training "pure scientists" as scholars while most psychology graduates will "wind up in professional work outside universities and colleges." One solution is "to set up a school forthrightly embracing both academic and professional graduate training." There would be an "academic department" and a separate "professional department." (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)     

Some thoughts on television as an educational tool.

"A major conclusion warranted by all of the research findings is: TV can teach." The authors state that "… the relatively little research available, its character and findings, do not warrant the marked enthusiasm and overoptimism about educational television evidenced in many quarters." "In our view, TV at present should be regarded merely as one other communication channel for teaching purposes." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues: hidden or mislaid.

"When two professions find themselves working at cross purposes they can, if they look closely, observe that there are several courses open to them." Recently the two APAs have gone on record as favoring the same kind of legislation for psychologists. Among the still smouldering "squabbles" is "… the right to administer the sacrament of psychotherapy." We "… need to keep testing and remodelling our issues with psychiatry until we construct those upon which our mutual difficulties can be intelligently resolved." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology.

"This paper is a proposal to establish counseling psychology as a functionally unique pattern of practice." Three hypotheses are proposed, one of which holds that "… counseling psychologists resemble industrial psychologists to a greater extent than they do psychotherapists." Eight points are made in summarizing "… a relatively unique pattern of function for the counseling psychologist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persons or science? A philosophical question.

"As I have acquired experience as a therapist… and as I have worked as a scientific investigator… I have become increasingly conscious of the gap between these two roles." The roles and objectives of psychotherapist and psychological scientist are discussed and several issues are raised. An integration is developed "… in which the conflict between 'experientialist' and 'scientific' tends to disappear." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pair-comparisons consistency and grades in law school.

Can the predictability of academic grades be improved through the use of a test construction technique known as "measures of consistency in making pair comparison judgments"? "… consistency scores from the Legal Traits Test were correlated with grades at eight schools of law." The results were negative. "… these consistency scores are not promising as predictors of law school grades." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lost: Our intelligence? Why?

The "concept of general intelligence, despite being maligned by a few, regarded as a 2nd-order function by some, and discarded or ignored by others, still has a rightful place in the science of psychology and in the practical affairs of man." "It is far from clear that tests of general intelligence have been outmoded by the multi-test batteries as the more useful predictors of school achievement." In fact some evidence suggests that "better predictions are possible via old-fashioned general intelligence tests." Discussion focuses on reasons for discarding the idea of general intelligence, factor theories of intelligence, and recent trends in the assessment of "general intelligence." "By the criterion of social usefulness, the multiple aptitude batteries have been found wanting." It is "time for the profession to establish a bureau of standards to test the tests." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internships vs. field training for industrial psychologists.

It "… is better to take advantage of opportunities for training that now exist in industry than to sell industry on the merits of internship programs." Practical difficulties of organizing, developing, and maintaining psychological internships in industry are indicated. The merits of a work-centered program are discussed. Twenty-five years of "experience… (with a great variety of college graduates including psychologists) indicates that internships for industrial psychologists are unnecessary." "An internship can be described as a weaning period… . Few industrial employers are interested in weanlings." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)