On Ardila's "International psychology."

Argues that although R. Ardila (see record 1982-29234-001) provides some relevant information and intended to set out an international perspective for psychology, he inadvertently confirmed the provincialism that characterizes much of the North American enterprise by emphasizing the number of its practitioners, its linguistic predominance, and its general pervasiveness. It is argued that Ardila missed significant developments in German-language psychology, and that a one-language psychology may have more disadvantages than advantages for an international psychology. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graduate training in law and psychology at Simon Fraser University.

As the field of law and psychology grows and develops, it is important to devote systematic attention to the development of graduate training programs in the area. This article provides a brief introduction to the field of law and psychology and to the field's training needs. It then presents information about the Graduate Program in Law and Psychology that was founded at Simon Fraser University in 1992. The article includes information about the development of the program, program requirements. and issues that are important for others considering the development of similar programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduate education in psychology: Will the mermaids sing?

Briefly tracing the development of undergraduate psychology curricula in the United States, the author highlights relevant conferences and reports. Then, the author pays special attention to the St. Mary's Conference, held in 1991, and dramatic changes in the teaching of psychology in secondary schools. Buoyed by recent auspicious progress, the author is decidedly optimistic about the future of undergraduate education in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The geography of APA membership.

APA membership is increasing rapidly. What can we say about this increase? Where are psychologists' centered? What geographical shifts have occurred over the years? Are we "promoting human welfare" throughout the United States or primarily in the more populated areas? We should possess these answers now and we certainly need them for intelligent future planning concerning the most efficient use of psychology. Unfortunately, we do not even know the number of psychologists residing in the various states. The present study was undertaken to answer these questions and also to supply basic data that would diminish the chore of doing additional much needed research in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scientific communication: The dissemination system in psychology and a theoretical framework for planning innovations.

"About 1000 persons make presentations at a single annual national convention of APA, and an equal number appear before meetings of regional associations affiliated with APA. There are close to 1000 journals of some interest to psychologists. About 20 of these journals may be considered central. 200-300 technical books relevant to psychological work are published each year." There appear to be "only about 2000 psychologists who are extremely active in scientific communication within psychology." 2 diagrams are provided, one indicating in detail the process of the dissemination of scientific information from work production to secondary publication and the other suggesting an innovation on the system for the dissemination of scientific information in psychology. Major sections are: Discussion of some findings. Dissemination as a dynamic process. Effects of innovation upon the dynamic process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Historical Footnote.

Introductory texts in clinical psychology generally begin with a chapter or section on the historical background of the field. The names of pioneers in clinical psychology are not many, but historical reviews have not included the name of one person who was active for several years during the infancy of the APA and the developing specialty of clinical psychology: William Otterbein Krohn. This article provides information about the personal and professional accomplishments of Krohn. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Development in work and organizational psychology: Implications for international business.

Reviews the book, Development in work and organizational psychology: Implications for international business edited by Paul Jackson and Manfusa Shams (2006). This book is part of the Elsevier International Business and Management Series. Jackson and Shams state that the objective of this book is to "give authoritative accounts" of developments within work and organisational psychology for students and practitioners of international business. The editors emphasise that this book or any edited book cannot be a comprehensive work on all of the areas in organisational psychology, so they selected leading scholars from the United Kingdom and North America and invited these researchers to select a topic in their area of expertise. From this "reflective practitioner's perspective," the volume becomes a miscellany of chapters, some of which international business scholars would not consider to be international business. The main topics in international business (IB) include such things as international trade, foreign direct investment, global monetary system, international strategy, importing and exporting, global manufacturing and operations management, international marketing, global or international human resources management, international accounting, international finance, the international environment, economic and socioeconomic and sociocultural forces, and political and legal environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists' advocacy for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

Comments on the article by G. Herek, "Legal recognition of same-sex relationships in the United States: A social science perspective," (see record 2006-11202-004). Herek provided a useful overview of psychological research relevant to the legal recognition of same-sex marriages. Another avenue of advocacy that the American Psychological Association could undertake would be to take advantage of its status as an accredited nongovernmental organization at the United Nations and aim to amend the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, originally approved in 1948. This document, noble in many respects, contains standards that limit the rights of gays and lesbians to legally marry. It is troubling that the very United Nations that advocates for human rights around the globe perpetuates these hetero-normative standards. Amending the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights would be a positive step toward providing a legal rationale and international precedent for equal civil rights for gays and lesbians within the United States and other countries. (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)     

Depression and gender: An international review.

This article reviews and updates major research findings on depressive disorders and gender relationships in the United States and abroad. It also considers some of the World Health Organization's assessment instruments that may clarify the relationship between depression and gender and its cross-cultural ramifications. With psychology converging across national boundaries and with gender being a variable in psychological research both nationally and internationally, gender and its relationship to depressive states is emerging as a focal point of interest and concern. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does Psychology make a significant difference in our lives?

The intellectual tension between the virtues of basic versus applied research that characterized an earlier era of psychology is being replaced by an appreciation of creative applications of all research essential to improving the quality of human life. Psychologists are positioned to "give psychology away" to all those who can benefit from our wisdom. Psychologists were not there 35 years ago when American Psychological Association (APA) President George Miller first encouraged us to share our knowledge with the public. The author argues that psychology is indeed making a significant difference in people's lives; this article provides a sampling of evidence demonstrating how and why psychology matters, both in pervasive ways and specific applications. Readers are referred to a newly developed APA Web site that documents current operational uses of psychological research, theory, and methodology (its creation has been the author's primary presidential initiative): www.psychologymatters.org. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cause and effect theories of attention: The role of conceptual metaphors.

Scientific concepts are defined by metaphors. These metaphors determine what attention is and what count as adequate explanations of the phenomenon. The authors analyze these metaphors within 3 types of attention theories: (a) "cause" theories, in which attention is presumed to modulate information processing (e.g., attention as a spotlight; attention as a limited resource); (b) "effect" theories, in which attention is considered to be a by-product of information processing (e.g., the competition metaphor); and (c) hybrid theories that combine cause and effect aspects (e.g., biased-competition models). The present analysis reveals the crucial role of metaphors in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and the efforts of scientists to find a resolution to the classic problem of cause versus effect interpretations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Biases against theism in psychology?

Slife and Reber issue a welcome challenge to "implicit biases" against the serious investigation of religious experience and phenomena in psychology. I agree with the main thrust of their article but express a few friendly reservations about their analysis and some concerns about how a productive dialogue between psychology and religion might best be pursued from this point forward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research in industrial and organizational psychology from 1963 to 2007: Changes, choices, and trends.

The authors conducted a content analysis of all articles published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personnel Psychology from January 1963 to May 2007 (N = 5,780) to identify the relative attention devoted to each of 15 broad topical areas and 50 more specific subareas in the field of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology. Results revealed that (a) some areas have become more (or less) popular over time, whereas others have not changed much, and (b) there are some lagged relationships between important societal issues that involve people and work settings (i.e., human-capital trends) and I-O psychology research that addresses them. Also, much I-O psychology research does not address human-capital trends. Extrapolating results from the past 45 years to the next decade suggests that the field of I-O psychology is not likely to become more visible or more relevant to society at large or to achieve the lofty goals it has set for itself unless researchers, practitioners, universities, and professional organizations implement significant changes. In the aggregate, the changes address the broad challenge of how to narrow the academic-practitioner divide. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Cole and Bruner.

Comments on the article by Cole and Bruner (see record 1972-21705-001), entitled "Cultural differences and inferences about psychological processes." In their article Cole and Bruner stated: "the psychologist's task is to analyze the source of cultural difference so that those of the minority, the less powerful group, may quickly acquire the intellectual instruments necessary for success of the dominant culture, should they so choose [p. 875]." The current author discusses this statement in relation to the problems women face within the field of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring job stressors and studying the health impact of the work environment: An epidemiolgic commentary.

This article provides a commentary on 5 articles in the special section that marshal a substantial amount of information about 4 instruments for measuring work stress. The perspective is that of psychosocial epidemiology and highlights the differences between the environmental and the psychological traditions of studying stress and health. Several issues are addressed: (a) placing the 4 measures in a broader taxonomy of dimensions of work environment and evaluating the measures in that context, (b) discussing alternative strategies for measuring job strains, (c) analyzing some of the issues in the triviality debate, and (d) reconsidering a number of issues in the ongoing debate about "subjective" versus "objective" measurement approaches to work dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental assumptions in literary criticism and their implications for conceptions of continuity and change in literary creativity.

With 2 critical readings of William Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality From Recollections of Early Childhood," this article presents contrasting assumptions of the literary critic about the development of artistic creativity and relates them to the issue of continuity and change in literary expression over the life span. The unveiled assumptions parallel the "hard" (structuralist) and "soft" (life-span) conceptions of human development prevailing in contemporary psychology. A better understanding of creative development may be reached by superimposing the principles derived from the soft metatheoretical orientation on those of the hard theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

SHARE: International hospitality for psychologists.

Comments on the original article, "U.S. psychology and world psychology," by M. R. Rosenzweig (see record 1986-10248-001). Rosenzweig chastised U.S. psychologists for their neglect of psychology abroad and helpfully mentioned SHARE as one of the ways in which individuals can participate in international psychology. He recommended that psychologists volunteer to host international visitors through their own institutions or through SHARE. The current author, SHARE chairperson from 1973 to 1984, notes that SHARE cordially seconds Rosenzweig's suggestion. Psychologists may register with SHARE as hosts, travelers, or both. SHARE is currently co-sponsored and financed by 10 international and national psychological organizations, including 5 divisions of APA. There are no fees to participants. Participation as a host or guest is available to members in good standing of a sponsor group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)