Review of The essential Sternberg: Essays on intelligence, psychology, and education.

Reviews the book, The essential Sternberg: Essays on intelligence, psychology, and education edited by James C. Kaufman and Elena L. Grigorenko (see record 2009-00687-000). For years, Robert Sternberg has produced renowned, groundbreaking work, and now some of it is captured in one volume: The Essential Sternberg. The book gathers in one place Sternberg’s major publications. From a repertoire of more than 1,000 journal articles, book chapters, and books, the editors have chosen 20 seminal works, spanning 30 years from 1977 to 2006. Although not organized chronologically, the ordering of the chapters reflects the progression of Sternberg’s work. In reading the book, one gains a sense of how a theory (and a career) of one of psychology’s major thinkers has evolved. The book presents five arcs of Sternberg’s research and theory on intelligence and education. No book, of course, can cover all the areas of a scholar’s research, so readers wanting to learn more about, for example, Sternberg’s work on love will need to look elsewhere. However, Sternberg’s central ideas and work are certainly on display in this book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Saul B. Sells (1913–1988).

Saul Sells was born in New York City on January 13, 1913. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1933, after studying philosophy and psychology, and three years later earned a PhD degree from Columbia University. His dissertation work, supervised by Robert S. Woodworth, was on the atmosphere effect in syllogistic reasoning, an often-cited study. While a student at Columbia, he also worked closely with Edward L. Thorndike. Throughout his career, Saul stressed the significance of organism-environment interactions in understanding and predicting behavior; he also emphasized the need to study behavior in its natural setting. He devoted himself to bridging science and practice in psychology through three major and interrelated research domains. In addition to his 22 books and over 400 articles, Saul's breadth of professional interest and influence is reflected in his numerous awards and organizational affiliations (he was a fellow in 10 different APA divisions). He served on many editorial boards, but special dedication went into his founding efforts and over 20 years as Managing Editor for Multivariate Behavioral Research. On February 4, 1988, at age 75, Saul died of a heart attack while preparing to attend an early morning meeting on another new project. His work was his life and hobby, and he devoted himself to it fully. He and Helen had no children. A brother was his only surviving family member. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In memoriam: The idioverse of Saul Rosenzweig (1907-2004).

Saul Rosenzweig (1907-2004), who founded the "common factors" approach to psychotherapy integration, and who published original and influential work during each of eight consecutive decades, died of pneumonia in St. Louis on August 9, 2004, at the age of 97. His most influential academic contributions can be placed into five categories. First, his 1933 article, "The Experimental Situation as a Psychological Problem," helped usher in the field of experimental social psychology. A second field to which Rosenzweig made enormous contributions is that of psychotherapy integration. A third field to which Rosenzweig contributed significantly is experimental psychoanalysis. Fourth, Rosenzweig played a central role in developing frustration theory, including the concept of frustration tolerance. Fifth, Rosenzweig developed the idiodynamic approach to personality assessment in the late 1940s and elaborated on it until the end of his career. Rosenzweig had been a faculty member continuously since 1949 in the Department of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Saul Rosenzweig (1907-2004).

This is an obituary of Saul Rosenzweig. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 7, 1907. Saul died of pneumonia at the age of 97. Saul was known as a difficult and demanding colleague, but he was widely respected for his scholarly contributions and grasp of historical facts and nuances. He was a staunch individualist and determined researcher. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The founder of common factors: A conversation with Saul Rosenzweig.

In preparation for a commentary on Saul Rosenzweig's classic 1936 paper, "Some Implicit Common Methods in Diverse Forms of Psychotherapy," an amazing discovery was made: Saul Rosenzweig is not only alive but also still contributing to science and society at age 93. This article sets the stage for a conversation with the incredibly prolific Dr. Rosenzweig by tracing the impact of his seminal contribution on early common factors theorists. This review reveals Rosenzweig's unrecognized but profound influence on leading figures of not only common factors but also of psychotherapy itself. A conversation with Rosenzweig, the founder of common factors, is presented. This noted scholar and wise elder of psychology reflects on the evolution of his thinking from common factors to idiodynamics, and on topics ranging from his passion for literature to his 1965 Buick Skylark, from the history of psychotherapy to falling in love with ideas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of Human Engineering Data.

Reviews the second edition of the book "Handbook of human engineering data". This Handbook was developed by the Institute for Applied Experimental Psychology of Tufts College, Medford, Massachusetts, under contract with the Special Devices Center of the Office of Naval Research. Work on it was begun in 1947. To many nonpsychologists the Handbook provides the means whereby they first become aware of the broad panorama of scientific concern with man in a nonclinical sense. This reviewer also believes there should be a growing place for the Handbook in training programs throughout the country, whether in college, government, or industry. The Handbook of Human Engineering Data in the opinion of this reviewer is an important contribution which, teamed up with two other major publications in human engineering provides a strong basis for growth and effective practice in human engineering. Consequently people interested therein should have the Handbook available to them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychoanalytic group theory and therapy: Essays in honor of Saul Scheidlinger.

Reviews the book, Psychoanalytic group theory and therapy: Essays in honor of Saul Scheidlinger (American Group Psychotherapy Association Monograph 7) edited by Saul Tuttman (1991). This book, which consists of original articles and is dedicated to Saul Scheidlinger and edited by Saul Tuttman, will be of great interest to the practicing analytic group therapist. It can also provide the individual analyst with an excellent overview of the current thinking of some of the leading figures in psychodynamic group therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Removing irrelevant information from working memory: A cognitive aging study with the modified Sternberg task.

Two experiments with a modified Sternberg recognition task explored the ability of young and old adults to remove irrelevant information from working memory. The task involved 2 memory sets, 1 of which was later cued as irrelevant. The recognition probe was presented at a variable time after the cue. Two indicators of inhibition, the setsize effect of the irrelevant set and the reaction time cost of intrusion probes (i.e., negative probes present in the irrelevant list), were dissociated. Irrelevant setsize effects lasted less than 1 s after the cue and did not differ between old and young adults. Intrusion costs lasted up to 5 s and were disproportionally large for old adults. With the additional requirement to remember both lists until after the probe, young adults' intrusion costs in Experiment 2 were equivalent to those of old adults in Experiment 1, but the setsize effects of the irrelevant set was larger. The results are compatible with a dual-process model of recognition in combination with a working-memory model distinguishing the focus of attention from the activated portion of long-term memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial introduction.

This is a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychology devoted to research utilizing human evoked potentials. It is a technique that is increasingly relevant to the interests of psychologists working in traditional areas of human experimental psychology - perception, attention, and memory. The selection of papers in this issue represents current thinking on both fronts, and although far from exhaustive, it should give the reader a basis for judging the current status of work in this field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Procedure for Nonacademic Failure of Graduate Students in Psychology.

Recently, the application of the legal concept of "due process" has been broadening. Bernard (1975) has suggested that clinical students in psychology are due a clear procedure for being judged unsuitable and dropped from their programs. At the University of Alabama, we are persuaded that these processes should also include experimental students. Certainly, there are characteristics that render people unsuitable to the profession of psychology, whether clinical or experimental. We have, therefore, adopted a procedure designed to apply at those times when faculty members feel students may be unsuitable to practice psychology: in the classroom, the laboratory, the clinic, or any other setting. This procedure is sent to students who apply to the graduate program and are under consideration for acceptance--before they commit themselves to our department. (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 experimenter effect.

Recent investigations in experimental psychology have shown somewhat striking results which indicate that Es may and do influence their data. This problem was considered in relation to the areas of: experimental, counseling, and testing psychology. A historical review revealed that although the influence of E has been generally acknowledged, an unconcerned attitude towards this phenomenon has been taken, especially by experimental psychologists. Counseling psychology has been most concerned with the experimenter effect because this is closely related to the counseling situation. Workers in this area have not only recognized but have attempted to manipulate E influence. In the field of testing, investigators have reported significant variability in Ss' performances as a result of E characteristics. (42 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Foundations of Experimental Research.

Reviews the book, Foundations of Experimental Research by Robert Plutchik (1968). The reviewer was impressed with the scope, aim, and concept of this book. The author appears to have synthesized, in many cases, the best of what is found in McGuigan's "Experimental Psychology", Underwood's second edition of "Experimental Psychology" and the more advanced text, "Introduction to Psychological Research", by Scott and Wertheimer. In comparison with other books of its level in the field, the book by Plutchik would be certainly recommended. It has failings, but far fewer than most other books that are competitive with it. It is short enough so that where these weaknesses are found, supplementary material can be used in the course. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From H = log sn to conceptual framework: A short history of information.

"Information" has become a widely used term in psychology, especially within cognitive psychology. However, despite its status as a technical term, the word now rarely receives explicit definition. By contrast, when information entered the vocabulary of psychologists in the late 1940s, it had an explicit mathematical definition largely derived from developments in information theory. This article examines how information entered psychology, how its meaning changed, and how it remained a technical term in the vocabulary of psychologists in the second part of the 20th century. "Information" became a term that was required to speak to ever more diverse theoretical concerns and its earliest definitions in psychology could not sustain such uses. As a consequence, "information" became a term whose technical uses became increasingly difficult to differentiate from its everyday meanings. I argue that this has not necessarily made "information" a worthless term but one whose lack of specificity may now be unsettling to some psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparative Psychology.

In a recent issue of this journal, Dukes (Amer. Psychologist, 1960, 15, 157) revisited Beach's "Snark," the classic analysis of the types of animals and behavior processes investigated by psychologists. Using Beach's original categories, Dukes showed that there has been little change in the distribution of animal species studied during the past decade, except for an increase in the use of primate subjects. In the following paragraphs I will present a further analysis of the variety of animals used in experiments reported in the Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology (1956-59), and a breakdown into the separate themes the papers reported during that period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robert Sessions Woodworth: 1869-1962.

Woodworth was "a unique contributor to modern American psychology in at least four respects." (a) He was a symbol of mature, factually and method-oriented experimental psychology. (b) Through teaching and editing he became a central figure in a vigorous, broadgauged conception of research. (c) His eclecticism indicated scope and perspective. (d) He clearly defined his position on controversial issues and buttressed it with logic and evidence. For Woodworth a psychology worth knowing meant that one should know it "in three dimensions." His Experimental Psychology was a major reference work for a particular era of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis as a natural science.

Despite Freud's unwavering intention that psychoanalysis should conform to the requirements of a natural science, this aim has not been realized. Some analysts hold the aim to have been mistaken. Others believe it can and should be achieved, proposing that traditional metapsychology be replaced by a new conceptual framework utilizing modern concepts not available to Freud. Utilizing data obtained from current findings in developmental psychology based on direct observation of parent-child interaction as well as from therapeutic sessions, a possible framework is sketched using principles derived from ethology, control theory, and human information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Launor Franklin Carter (1914–1986).

Presents an obituary for Launor Franklin Carter. Carter earned a BS degree and MS degree in experimental psychology from the University of Washington, and a PhD in experimental psychology from Princeton University. He had a long career in military psychology, and worked on the early development of the Army's classification system. Launor joined the psychology faculty of the University of Rochester, as an assistant and later associate professor, with responsibility for undergraduate and graduate instruction in social psychology. Later he joined the Human Resources and Research Organization (HumRRO), where he directed a very productive program of research on the selection and training of junior leaders, on interactions among members of air defense artillery units and infantry squads, and on the characteristics of effective and ineffective infantrymen in the Korean conflict. This was followed by 25 years of service at the System Development Corporation (SDC), where he served as principal psychologist and as leader of research programs on military and civilian problems. Over the years, Launor also served in many military, civilian, and professional activities outside SDC. Launor died in 1986. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Needs of Clinical Students.

Comments that the existence of the so-called "scientist-professional" model in clinical psychology is rooted in the fact that graduate education must inevitably be based on a fundamental imbalance between the number of students to be taught and the number of professors to teach them. It is asserted that experimental psychologists must teach their material to graduate classes and clinical students are required to take these experimental courses and the author hopes that the new humanistic departments of psychology may be more receptive the needs of clinical students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)