"Behavior technologies" caricature of social psychology.

Comments that D. Kipnis's (see record 1994-29516-001) examination of present-day social psychology journals and textbooks ignored primary outlets in social psychology, widely taught mainstream texts, and "handbook" and "annual review" treatments. Fair use of these sources would have revealed that only a minor fraction of article titles and chapter topics can reasonably be subsumed under "Power and Behavior Technology." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The changing workforce: The role of health psychology.

Because the federal government is the largest payer of all health costs, unbridled increases in the health workforce have profound fiscal implications. Recent efforts to control health spending through modifications of health delivery systems are related to the consequences of the unlimited production of health professionals. However, the federal government has established processes to review physician workforce changes, and these mechanisms have become important in accessing federal training monies. Psychologists have no concerted workforce policy and receive little federal training money. Moreover, other health professionals have attained statutory authority to perform and provide the same services as psychologists. This diffusion of professional functions impedes the ability to assess the status of the workforce and the development of psychology as a health profession. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology and desegregation research.

"The role of social science, particularly sociology and psychology, in the desegregation process has been much publicized and criticized by southern segregationists." Reasons are considered for the failure of foundations to support desegregation research. The concept of latent liberal is introduced. The "definitive inter-disciplinary case study of desegregation has yet to be started. Properly buttressed by the necessary foundation aid, such a study should involve comparisons before, during, and after desegregation of a wide variety of communities." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2GA05P. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology: Comparative, societal and universal.

Noting that social psychology is necessarily rooted in a societal system, it is proposed that it is both desirable and possible to explore these societal bases in a broad range of sociocultural systems and to integrate these local social psychologies into a wider based discipline. Such an enterprise should proceed by employing the comparative method to test the usefulness of current social psychology (which is largely a Euro-American Discipline) in other sociocultural settings, to develop new theories and data in these other settings, and then to generate a more nearly universal social psychology that recognizes both cross-cultural communalities and varieties in social behavior. (91 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology and personality: Toward a convergence.

Argues that social and personality psychology are becoming increasingly characterized by greater receptiveness to the other's theoretical assumptions, concern with similar problems and the development of similar solutions to those problems, and the tendency of members of one specialty to adopt the methodologies typically identified with the other. Three recent developments are reviewed to substantiate this claim. Several cases are presented that demonstrate the increasing willingness of social psychologists to treat situational and personality perspectives as equally valid approaches to understanding social behavior. Several social-psychological constructs are described, each of which had been first operationalized via experimental manipulations and then later reconceptualized as an individual-difference variable. Interactionism is seen as a logical bridge between the differing orientations of personality and social psychology, and the current enthusiasm over this approach is one that is shared by many in both disciplines. A 3rd area of convergence becomes evident from an examination of the close parallels in the recent histories of attitudes and traits—dispositional concepts that play a central role in social and personality psychology, respectively. Especially notable is the fact that some of the recent strategies for improving trait–behavior consistencies are techniques that have been shown to strengthen attitude–behavior links as well. (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology, experimental psychology and the social psychology of the experiment.

Discusses the recent growth of experimental social psychology which has involved wholesale adoption of classical methodology as conceived by experimental psychology. Paradoxically, research and writings on the "social psychology of the experiment" raise serious questions about certain assumptions implicit in classical methodology, i.e., those concerning the nature of the subject matter and the relationship between E and S. The views of R. Rosenthal, M. T. Orne, and others are discussed in this context and general implications considered in the light of the humanistic movement in American psychology. The general conclusion is that the values and criteria for all experimentation in psychology may be destined to undergo a radical reorientation. (French summary) (32 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology: Its place in personology.

Maintains that the present tension and divisiveness in Division 8 of the American Psychological Association (Personality and Social Psychology), which furthers the already too-far-advanced overspecialization and fragmentation in psychology, might be reduced if members of that division would spend more time examining themselves and talking with the people they wish to understand. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology on television: Experimental programming.

The opportunity to present a series of psychology programs of a non-telecourse variety was an opportunity to investigate some of the experimental possibilities inherent in the presentation of social psychological content on television. "This paper describes certain aspects of the series: Techniques of presentation, the presentation of potentially controversial subject matter, and the problems involved in the evaluation of the series." One program dramatized social prejudice; another featured a discussion of basic propaganda techniques; still another focussed on worker morale. The experimental programming of social psychology on television "provides further evidence which suggests that educational television not only supplies a challenging experimental medium in social psychology, but also in the process provides a means of communicating significant psychological ideas to a greater representation of the population than has heretofore ever been possible." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reality versus suggestion: Pseudomemory in hypnotizable and simulating subjects.

Assigned hypnotizable (N?=?56) and simulating Ss (N?=?44) to 1 of 4 conditions: heard a phone ring and conversation, received a suggestion to hear a phone ring and conversation, received a suggestion and heard a phone ring and conversation, or neither heard a phone ring nor received a suggestion. Hypnotizable Ss successfully discriminated objective events from suggested sources of input. When Ss received a suggestion to hear a phone ring, only 11.5% indicated it actually rang in their open-ended reports; in response to a forced-choice question, none did so. In spontaneous reports, none of the hypnotizable Ss who heard a phone ring indicated it was suggested; only one did so in response to a forced-choice item (vs. 2 simulators). In the no-phone/no-suggestion condition, more simulators than hypnotizable Ss indicated that a phone rang or was suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new context for psychology: Social ecology.

Describes an undergraduate program in applied psychology which uses an interdisciplinary approach to study man in relation to his social and biological environment. The program includes field study in 1 of the following areas: community psychology; urban and regional planning; environmental quality and health; human ecology; criminal justice; or educational policy and institutions. The curricula prepares students for BA-level professional roles, graduate work, and effective citizen participation in the community. A list of courses and requirements is presented. Preliminary evidence suggests that the model is workable and satisfying to students. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology a century ago.

America's dual interest in social welfare and practical science fueled the emergence of social psychology in the late 19th century. By that century's end, psychologists had presented diverse and sometimes contesting models of social psychology. These varied conceptualizations, however, were challenged by the discipline's growing dedication to the scientific method and experimentation, as well as the profession's need to produce knowledge that could be readily used to address current social problems and regulate social institutions. An appreciation of this late-19th-century moment of intellectual generativity and constraint affords an opportunity to reflect on the potentials and constraints of social psychology at the end of the 20th century. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology and counseling psychology: The history, products, and promise of an interface.

For 3 decades, counseling psychologists have drawn ideas from social psychology about the social process of counseling, integrated the ideas into counseling theories, and assessed them in research. This article traces the history of this interface, examines its products, and projects its future. Three propositions have guided and have been supported by much of the research: (1) Successful counseling relationships generate psychological convergence between counselor and client through a systematic developmental process; (2) ideas counselors introduce that are discrepant from clients' understandings stimulate change; and (3) clients' responsiveness to counselors is a function of their dependence on the counselors. These social influence dynamics underlie the processes and outcomes of counseling relationships regardless of the clinical theory that guides the counselors' work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive psychology versus the medical model?: Comment.

Comments on "Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions" by Seligman, Steen, Park, and Peterson (see record 2005-08033-003). Seligman and colleagues provided a progress report on positive psychology, reviewing the impressive developments over the past five years. We wholeheartedly support the positive psychology movement and believe its success is a testimony to Seligman's vision and leadership. However, in looking back over the past five years, we are mindful of what the next five years may hold and are concerned over the future direction and development of the positive psychology movement. Positive psychology as a movement largely continues to operate within the medical model and thus to implicitly condone the "medicalization" of human experience. If positive psychology is seen only as a supplement, then a limited view is offered in which positive psychology may only be relevant as an "extra" for those who are already capable and well-functioning rather than as a useful guide for people wherever they are on the continuum of functioning. Our vision is that positive psychology should stand in contrast to the medical model and its impetus toward the medicalization of human experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Uneven progress: Social psychology and the study of attitudes.

Progress in understanding attitudes is discussed in relation to 4 critical areas of research that have particularly long histories. In 2 of these areas attitude serves as an independent variable, and in 2 it serves as a dependent variable. Thus, the effects of attitudes on behavior are examined in research on the attitude–behavior relation, and their effects on information processing are examined in research on attitudinal selectivity. Research on persuasion investigates the effects of communications on attitudes, and research on attitudinal advocacy investigates the effects of behaviors on attitudes. Each of these areas is characterized by uneven progress, as social psychologists' own research shook their early faith in simple principles, and pessimism temporarily reigned. The subsequent emergence of more sophisticated theories in these areas has resulted in considerably more successful prediction of attitudinal phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Romantic versus realistic views of psychology.

Comments on the article by R. J. Sternberg and E. L. Grigorenko (see record 2001-10045-001), which described an approach to psychology ("unified psychology") that is a multiparadigmatic, multidisciplinary, and integrated study of psychological phenomena through converging operations. According to the present author, Sternberg and Grigorenko ignored fundamental methodological differences within the discipline when they developed their concept of unified psychology. In addition, Sternberg and Grigorenko's conception of a unified psychology was achieved by extending the meanings of converging operations (W. R. Garner et al, 1956) and paradigm (T. S. Kuhn, 1970) beyond their original intent. Sternberg and Grigorenko flagrantly ignored striking differences among contemporary psychologists' criteria for truth or verisimilitude. Instead of viewing psychology within the context of converging operations and paradigms and holding the amorphous conception that psychologists "need adhere to no particular set of methods, to no particular field, and to no particular paradigm," psychologists should consider an alternative, more direct approach: explicitly stating both the nature of the psychological phenomena to be studied and as well as their intended mode of explanation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology of creativity: A consensual assessment technique.

States that both the popular creativity tests, such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and the subjective assessment techniques used in some previous creativity studies are ill-suited to social psychological studies of creativity. A consensual definition of creativity is presented, and as a refinement of previous subjective methods, a reliable subjective assessment technique based on that definition is described. The results of 8 studies testing the methodology in elementary school and undergraduate populations in both artistic and verbal domains are presented, and the advantages and limitations of this technique are discussed. The present methodology can be useful for the development of a social psychology of creativity because of the nature of the tasks employed and the creativity assessments obtained. Creativity assessment is discussed in terms of the divergent aims and methods of personality psychology and social psychology. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology of false confessions: Bem's early contribution.

Comments that S. M. Kassin's (see record 1997-07781-003) article on coerced confessions will likely emerge as an important reference on the topic, providing as it does an overview of the phenomonon from the perspectives of the police, the suspect, jurors, and judges. It is noted, however, that social psychologist D. J. Bem's line of research in this area, from the perspective of his self-perception theory (Bem, 1966, 1970), was not cited in the article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Restrictive versus open paradigms in comparative psychology.

Takes issue with M. Blumberg and E. Wasserman's article (see record 1995-20777-001) in which D. R. Griffin's cognitive ethology is criticized and precepts are presented to revitalize comparative psychology along Skinnerian lines. It is argued that data from bird studies indicate that many birds understand what is going on around them and are far more anthropomorphic and mentalistic than the precepts of Blumberg and Wasserman can encompass. Researchers need to consider the implications of results that show that animals understand subtle meanings and have other subtle cognitive capabilities that scientists have always assumed were exclusively human. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Philosophy of science versus psychology of science.

Comments that B. F. Singer (see record 1972-22035-001) and B. B. Wolman (see record 1972-20015-001) tacitly endorse the assumption that, in some fundamental sense, the philosophy of science may appropriately be displaced by the psychology of science. The distinction between a philosophical and a psychological approach to explanatory adequacy is illustrated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)