"Value Orientations--An Ethical Dilemma": Comment.

Comments on the article by C. Marshall Lowe (see record 1961-00097-001). The author of this comment discusses Lowe's suggestions that changes in a client's value system during therapy to resemble those of the therapist should be avoided. The author argues that a value change on the part of the client is seen as the major process by which clients improve. Lastly, the author of this comment disagrees with Lowe's fatalist view that differences in value orientations cannot be resolved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Use of "Relationship" and "Among" in Psychological Writing.

Comments on the expression "relationships among (several) variables" occurring frequently in contemporary psychological writing. The author states that while this expression is acceptable enough, there is nothing so commendable about it that it should be preferred to the more nearly correct "relations between (several) variables." The author states that after picking a journal at random and reading through the summaries of all the papers and notes, there appears to be a growing tendency to use the term relationship in preference to relation and the term among (several) in preference to between (several). He then states what he believes to be the proper use of these terms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Sin, the lesser of two evils": Comment.

Comments on the article "Sin, the lesser of two evils" by O.H. Mower (1960) (see record 1961-03555-001). The present author was puzzled by Mower's argument of bringing "sin" into psychotherapy and counters Mower on two of his key points. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On "Obedience to authority."

Comments on the major themes of S. Milgram's (1974) research, which showed obedience that was total. The author states that such an experimental result was very important, although the vital lessons about human conduct are really not influenced by research psychologists. The lessons reach the people through their parents, teachers, the police, and the other "real" people who set the rules and the consequences for breaking them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Psychotherapy's" Autonomy.

Comments on the article by A. Astin (see record 1962-03183-001) which examined the functional autonomy of psychotherapy. The current author was left with the vague suspicion that Astin had martialed a good deal of scholarly evidence to prove a point that needs no proof. Psychotherapy is autonomous and serious students of it are giving a good deal of thought, time, and energy to a consideration of its functional properties. Certainly many of the "practitioners" are as unhappy as Astin over the uncertainties involved, but fortunately, unlike Astin they have not washed their hands of the "bothersome business" of outcome or process. The first issue that needs attention is his opening sentence. Unfortunately, here he gives no reference to indicate how long we have been about the business of attempting to formulate rigorously any test hypotheses about the therapy relationship within that situation itself and in the laboratory as well. The second and final point the current author makes is that it is unnecessary to answer Astin's article point by point. It would be more fruitful to look at the term "psychotherapy" and see in what way he may not have attended to what is perhaps the most important part of the problem he raises. That is, what does it mean to condemn "psychotherapy" when there are so many meanings attached to it, all applied by men of general good will who do intend to "provide a service to troubled people." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The relation of congitive-dissonance theory to an aspect of psychotherapeutic practice": Comment.

Presents a comment on Anthony Davids' article (see record 1965-02097-001) which presented the hypothesis that payment of high fees will cause clients entering a psychotherapeutic relationship to experience cognitive dissonance which may be reduced through increased commitment to therapeutic gain. This thesis, beyond providing a source of rationalization for psychologists engaged in private practice, raises another interesting question. Namely, why do writers in this area continue to speculate about the influence of fee payment on the behavior of the client, but neglect to raise the question of its influence upon the clinician? The author notes that Davids' thesis may actually be pointing toward a "double-effect" hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Psychologists and Civil Liberties": Comment.

Comments on the article by G. Murphy (Amer. Psychologist, 8, 745-747) on psychologists and civil liberties. The author notes that it was pleasing to find again someone aroused by the present dangers confronting academic freedom and personal liberty. He also notes, though, that Murphy's suggestion that investigation be more thorough seems to lead to conformity in its worst sense. The author suggests that baring one's private life (no matter how exemplary that life may be) under the coercion of McCarthyism is no victory for civil liberty, and agrees with Murphy's idea of "sticking to simple civil liberties; nothing more, nothing less." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Authoritarianism" and authority.

The author discusses and contrasts the psychological concept of "authoritarian personality" with the popular concept of similar name and stresses the clear need for a distinction between both concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Consulting Firms' Responsibilities for Publication": Comment.

Comments on the article "Consulting Firm Responsibility in Reporting Test Validation Studies" by Wendell French (see record 1962-03705-001.) The author of this comment questions some of the data reported. In addition, there are questions concerning reasons for the "why not" of publishing validation studies that merit being raised. The author suspects that it is more an individual than a firm reporting and discusses whether it is the firm or the individual who carries the responsibility, is blamed, or receives the credit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Quick Return Service" of the surgical pathology

The "Quick Return Service" of laboratory information would be the service for patients and clinicians that supply the laboratory information the instance that the specimens and the requests of laboratory examinations are accepted by the laboratory on the basis of the hospital information system (HIS) and the high-speed hospital transportation system of the specimens. Is the "Quick Return Service" of the pathological diagnosis possible and necessary? This question led the author to review the technical environments of the pathological diagnosis, especially of the frozen section diagnosis through our experience at the surgical pathology division of the Department of Laboratory Medicine of National Defense Medical College (NDMC) Hospital. Through the review, it appears that the supporting system for surgical pathologists to frozen section diagnosis ("Quick Return Service") is essential. Pathologists often need clinical and radiological information at the pathological diagnosis. For quick gaining of the information by surgical pathologists on the "Quick Return Service", the efficient HIS including hospital PACS (picture archiving and communication system) is necessary. Standardization and quality assurance of images of frozen section are also necessary. The technical environments of telepathology are developing. The interinstitution consultation through the telepathology will be the indispensable help for the "general" surgical pathologists confronting the problematic cases in the small hospitals that are deficient of pathologists. With the help of staff of the surgical pathology division of the NDMC hospital and the technologists of Mitsubishi Electronics, Co, the author has tried to develop the archiving system of frozen section pictures on the digital image management system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Comment on "Anxiety and Behavior Scientists' Behavior".

Comments on the article by L. Levy (see record 1962-03110-001) regarding anxiety and behavior scientists' behavior. Levy attempts to demonstrate a relationship between the publication of two instruments for the measurement of anxiety (Taylor's Manifest Anxiety scale, MA, and the Children's Form of the Manifest Anxiety scale, CMA) and a subsequent rise in published research dealing with anxiety. However, the current author argues that a casual glance at Levy's graph showing year-by-year changes in the percentage of papers listed under "anxiety" in Psychological Abstracts reveals that the trend toward greater interest in anxiety precedes the publication of Taylor's original paper in 1951. In addition a perusal of the biochemical or pharmacological literature shows this same increasing trend toward anxiety as a focus of interest anteceding the MA. The current author suggests that we should not be alarmed if the development of these two anxiety measures has indeed stimulated interest in the problem of anxiety and it would seem reasonable to hypothesize that they have to some extent. What is objected to is not Levy's hypothesis but the feast of non sequiturs he cites in support of it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How Early Was "Imprinting" Observed?

The author reports finding the concept of "imprinting" (a phenomenon of restricted learning) in Sir Thomas More's (1949, written in 1515) Utopia. She quotes the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some thoughts on "stumbling into the future".

Discusses the two pieces of legislation which are receiving special attention in this issue of the American Psychologist. They have a special relationship to each other. The "National Foundation for the Social Sciences Act," of which Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma is the author and I am cosponsor, is intended to provide Government assistance for social science research and scholarship. The "Full Opportunity and Social Accounting Act," of which I am the author and Senator Harris is a cosponsor, is intended to make use of the research, scholarship, and individual excellence of social scientists at the highest, most visible levels of the Government. The case is strong for each; the case for both, in my judgment, is overpowering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The role of the transitional realm as an organizer of analytic process: Transitional organizing experience": Correction to Cancelmo (2009).

Reports an error in "The role of the transitional realm as an organizer of analytic process: Transitional organizing experience" by Joe Cancelmo (Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2009[Jan], Vol 26[1], 2-25). The author’s name was incorrectly printed in the toc and in the author byline. The author’s name should read Joseph A. Cancelmo, PsyD, FIPA, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR). (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2008-19341-002.) D. W. Winnicott's construct of the transitional realm of human experience has been widely applied and creatively extended since its introduction more than half a century ago. The author describes the extension of this construct beyond its roots in the phase-specific need for the transitional object to a paradigm for psychic structuralization. He then considers a larger implication of this construct as an organizer and vehicle of transformation in analytic process via the transference. In this more elastic use of Winnicott's construct, the analytic process becomes organized along the lines of the earliest transitional experiences: the developmental progression from a nascent to a separate self, the organization of drive experience via the other, and the sorting out of one's own mind in terms of subjectivity and objectivity. Transitional organizing experience is used as shorthand for these far-reaching structural and dynamic transformations that take place within and between patient and analyst in the dyadic interplay of the analytic process. Via familiar dynamic constellations that emerge within the analytic process, the analytic dyad comes to reexperience (as a 2-person psychology) and reorganize (as a 1-person psychology) toward less "pathological" transitional forms of experience, allowing for a resumption in development of creative transitional space. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On "Criteria of Adjustment": Comment.

Comments on Robert Hoppock's article, "Criteria of Adjustment" (see record 2005-07923-015.) The author of this comment argues that there is a logical fallacy in Hoppock's criteria for well adjusted individuals. The author presents arguments against the criteria Hoppock outlines in his article and suggests thinking of adjustment in terms of intelligence and freedom of choice first as necessary conditions; furthermore, in terms of awareness, self-realization, and fulfillment; in terms of the development, cultivation, and use of one's capacities to best advantage; also in terms of harmony, balance, purposeful striving and growth, and that ubiquitous monster of ethics: happiness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Early withdrawal from mental health treatment: Implications for psychotherapy practice": Correction to Barrett et al (2008).

Reports an error in "Early withdrawal from mental health treatment: Implications for psychotherapy practice" by Marna S. Barrett, Wee-Jhong Chua, Paul Crits-Christoph, Mary Beth Gibbons and Don Thompson (Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 2008[Jun], Vol 45[2], 247-267). The fourth author’s name was mistakenly left out of the author byline and table of contents. The correct author listing for this article is presented in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2008-07317-011.) Despite more than 50 years of research on client attrition from therapy, obstacles to the delivery and success of treatments remain poorly understood, and effective methods to engage and retain clients in therapy are lacking. This article offers a review of the literature on attrition, highlighting the methodological challenges in effectively addressing the complex nature of this problem. Current interventions for reducing attrition are reviewed, and recommendations for implementing these interventions into psychotherapy practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Krueger (2001).

Reports an error in the original article by J. Krueger (American Psychologist, 2001, Vol 56[1], pp. 16-26). In Figure 2, on page 22, two of the curves are labeled "p(H0)=.9" and "p(H0)=.1." These labels should have been reversed. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 2001-16601-002.) Null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) is the researcher's workhorse for making inductive inferences. This method has often been challenged, has occasionally been defended, and has persistently been used through most of the history of scientific psychology. This article reviews both the criticisms of NHST and the arguments brought to its defense. The review shows that the criticisms address the logical validity of inferences arising from NHST, whereas the defenses stress the pragmatic value of these inferences. The author suggests that both critics and apologists implicitly rely on Bayesian assumptions. When these assumptions are made explicit, the primary challenge for NHST--and any system of induction--can be confronted. The challenge is to find a solution to the question of replicability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mowrer on "Sin".

Comments on the article "Sin, the lesser of two evils" by O.H. Mower (1960). In a recent issue of the American Psychologist, Hobart Mowrer (see record 1961-03555-001) argues that because "sin" is a stronger word than "wrongdoing" or "irresponsibility" it is better for the "neurotic" individual to admit his "sins" than accept his "wrongdoings." In upholding the concept of individual (if not original) "sin," Mowrer is contending that the "neurotic" individual must, if he is to get "well," accept the following syllogism: (a) sinning is unjustified; (b) I have sinned; (c) therefore, I must justify my existence by acknowledging my sins, changing my ways, and becoming a nonsinner. At first blush, this seems like a perfectly valid syllogism. But, as Mowrer himself suggests, it rarely works in practice. The author contends that with a more objective and realistic restatement of Mowrer's syllogism, the problem of the "neurotic" individual's changing his ineffective and self-defeating behavior is hardly automatically solved; but (by having the definitional concepts of deep worthlessness and severe ego "insult" removed from his philosophic premises) he becomes much more likely resolutely to tackle what Mowrer accurately describes as his moralpsychological difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back" (Answer to Paul Gedansky's Criticism).

The author regrets that her statement in "Psychology--a Profession or What," served to heighten Gedansky's anguish to the point where his anger was unleashed against the PhD in psychology. She is fully in sympathy with him, but finds it hard to agree that the MA is the optimum educational requirement for clinical psychology, because "the berated MA technicians have been quietly giving the bulk of clinical services in the hospitals and clinics of the United States for a good many years." Also it does not follow that hospitals and clinics must continue to use the MA in psychology rather than the PhD just because they have done so in the past. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)