Sacred cows and straw men.

Responds to the article by L. S. Brown (see record 84-26142) regarding managed care and false memory movement issues in social justice-oriented psychology, specifically in regard to the Biblical metaphors utilized. Dineen argues that psychology is shifting from a science to a religion. Consequently, with this shift has come imposed morality, bigotry, and demand for conformity within the garb of justice and salvation. Dineen argues that under this new religion, insured clients should have unlimited access to the therapy of their choice and that those claiming recovered memories should be protected from questions that might cause them to stop and think. What Brown's religion fails to do, is respect those individuals outside of the fold. It ignores the unbelieving and the uninsured. It fails to acknowledge the cold reality that there is not enough money available to pay for everybody's unlimited psychotherapy. In addition, it disregards a basic human fault (that people lie), and a basic human right (that people deserve the right to defend themselves). Dineen contends that these essential aspects of social justice are overlooked in Brown's article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The bizarreness effect: It's not surprising, it's complex.

Higher recall of bizarre images relative to common images (the bizarreness effect) is consistently found when bizarreness is varied as a within-subject (mixed-list) variable. In Experiment 1, mixed lists, rather than the smaller number of bizarre sentences typically used in such lists, determined the occurrence of the bizarreness effect. Contrary to predictions from expectation-violation theory, Experiments 2 and 3 showed that manipulations designed to augment or attenuate surprise reactions to bizarre sentences had little impact on the bizarreness effect. Experiments 4 and 5 indicated that mixing affected the degree to which participants differentially encoded order information for bizarre and common items. A new account of the bizarreness effect is presented that combines considerations of distinctiveness with the differential use of order information across bizarre and common items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

You have got to have a dream, but it's not enough.

In response to S. Sarason's (see record 1974-10936-001) analysis, E. Seidman and J. Rappaport comment on an uneasy feeling about what the thesis implies for the future of psychoeducational and other social change interventions. The authors note that society cannot ignore the cultural transmission of expectations, but must simultaneously work to change the external opportunity structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

If it's not there, where is it? Locating illusory conjunctions.

There is evidence that complex objects are decomposed by the visual system into features, such as shape and color. Consistent with this theory is the phenomenon of illusory conjunctions, which occur when features are incorrectly combined to form an illusory object. We analyzed the perceived location of illusory conjunctions to study the roles of color and shape in the location of visual objects. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants located illusory conjunctions about halfway between the veridical locations of the component features. Experiment 3 showed that the distribution of perceived locations was not the mixture of two distributions centered at the 2 feature locations. Experiment 4 replicated these results with an identification task rather than a detection task. We concluded that the locations of illusory conjunctions were not arbitrary but were determined by both constituent shape and color. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tailoring the therapeutic relationship, or being an authentic chameleon.

Relationships of choice are no less important than techniques of choice for effective psychotherapy. A flexible repertoire of relationship styles, plus a wide range of pertinent techniques seem to enhance treatment outcomes. Decisions regarding different relationship stances include when and how to be directive, supportive, respective, cold, warm, tepid, formal, or informal. If the therapist's style differs markedly from the patient's expectations, positive results are unlikely. Two clinical vignettes illustrate different therapeutic styles chosen by the therapist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Money and subjective well-being: It's not the money, it's the motives.

Past researchers have argued that the relative importance a person attaches to money is negatively related to subjective well-being (SWB). However, the past research suffers from the theoretical problem of not including the different motives for making money. With a sample of 240 business students, the authors developed a set of scales to measure motives for making money. They used a sample of 492 business students to confirm the factor structure of these motives. With another sample of 266 business students, the authors found that the negative relationship between money importance and SWB was due to the two variables being the result of a common cause; namely, the motives of social comparison, seeking power, showing off, and overcoming self-doubt. This finding was replicated with a sample of 145 entrepreneurs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

But it's not fair! Commonsense notions of unfairness.

Commonsense justice (N. J. Finkel, 1995) is said to reflect what "ordinary people think is just and fair", yet little is known about "fair," and whether it reflects anything different than "just." As cries of "but it's not fair!" are shrill and frequent, 4 studies and 2 experiments were undertaken to elucidate the essence of unfairness. In the 4 studies, college students, tots and teens (ages 4–17), adults (ages 25–60), and elderly participants (ages 60–95) detailed their unfairnesses, which yielded more than 5,000 instances, and from these an inclusive and reliable schema for type of unfairness and for who or what is to blame resulted. Unfairness claims are not petty whines, in the main, but legitimate complaints, and outsider raters see them that way as well; nor are they simply narcissistic, for unfairness claims that happen to others engender the greatest heat. With basic notions of "unfairness" underlying so many of our judgments regarding legal, political, and interpersonal proceedings, this basic research attempts to fill a large gap in our understanding of commonsense fairness and unfairness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On being half full or half empty.

Comments on J. B. Conway's (see record 1985-10567-001) history of clinical psychology in Canada. Conway's discussion of US–Canadian differences in the scientist-professional model is seen as exaggerated, and issues related to the future of the field in Canada and to accreditation are explored. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

It's not how you frame the question, it's how you interpret the results.

L. K. Michaelsen et al (see record 1992-19773-001) were not convinced by the present authors' computer simulations and replication study that the original study of Michaelsen et al (see record 1990-04483-001) did not provide evidence of an assembly bonus effect. Therefore, the authors logically reiterate the position that, at the very least, demonstrating an assembly bonus effect requires evidence that interacting groups would have outperformed noninteracting or nominal groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multipotentiality among the intellectually gifted: "It was never there and already it's vanishing."

The theory of work adjustment was used as a conceptual framework in evaluating the concept of multipotentiality, taken from the psychological literature on counseling intellectually gifted individuals (viz., those with high-flat ability and preference profiles that may lead to career indecision and distress). An examination of over 1,000 intellectually gifted students (top 1%) in 4 separate cohorts, assessed with the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the Study of Values, and J. L. Holland's (1985) six interest themes, revealed little empirical support for the prevalence of multipotentiality within intellectually talented adolescents (     

It's not me, it's you: A multilevel examination of variables that impact employee coaching relationships.

Employee coaching, which we consider to be a critical part of the performance management process, is coaching done by a manager or supervisor with his or her direct reports. The current article builds on recent research on the importance of the employee coaching relationship by investigating individual difference and contextual variables that contribute to the quality of employee coaching relationships. The study uses a multilevel modeling approach to test the effects of such variables as supervisor leadership style, emotional intelligence, empathy, implicit person theory, trust, and feedback environment on employees' perceptions of the coaching relationships they share with their supervisors. Overall, supervisors' individual consideration, empathy, trust, and the feedback environment all accounted for significant variance in employees' evaluations of coaching relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The clinician's art, or why science is not enough.

The importance of a scientific basis for clinical activity receives principal emphasis in the prevailing conception of what it means to be a clinical psychologist. An analysis of the activity of the clinician, however, reveals that in addition to empirical considerations, such activity necessarily includes two forms of clinical art, namely, empirical construction and creative construction. The former subserves scientific efforts to explain the causes of clients' difficulties and how to treat them, whereas the latter subserves efforts to facilitate change in clients by helping them to construct new meanings about their difficulties. Although distinct, the two forms of construction share important interrelationships. That both forms of construction suffuse most clinical activity underscores the need for a more explicit emphasis on clinical art in the clinician's training and professional definition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The positive aspects of being a lesbian or gay man.

The need to provide culturally competent training for counseling gay men and lesbians (as well as other sexual minorities) is limited by the relative scarcity of research. Extant research has focused on psychopathologies and negative life experiences with little attention to the positive aspects of the lives of gay men and lesbians. An online survey collected data on perceptions of the positive aspects of being a gay man or lesbian (N = 553). Qualitative analyses revealed 3 domains with 11 themes. The positive aspects of gay or lesbian identity were belonging to a community, creating families of choice, forging strong connections with others, serving as positive role models, developing empathy and compassion, living authentically and honestly, gaining personal insight and sense of self, involvement in social justice and activism, freedom from gender-specific roles, exploring sexuality and relationships, and enjoying egalitarian relationships (lesbian participants only). These findings are discussed in light of recent literature on positive psychology and strength-based therapeutic approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Let's be realistic: When grief counseling is effective and when it's not.

Comments on the article by D. Larson and W. Hoyt (see record 2007-11559-003) which argued that bereavement researchers have erroneously and unscientifically advocated the pessimistic conclusion that grief counseling is ineffective and perhaps even harmful. They proclaimed that the news is actually good: Grief counseling is not harmful but is as effective as other forms of psychotherapy. Therefore, they concluded, most or all bereaved people should be considered candidates for treatment. This kind of unwarranted optimism is as dangerous, if not more so, than an overly cautious pessimism. The current authors contend that the debate should be focused on (a) fine tuning assessment instruments so that they can best identify those bereaved people in serious clinical need and (b) further developing effective treatments that can more judiciously intervene when intervention is called for. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

CPA Committee on Ethics: If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.

In the spring '84 edition of the CPA Divisional Newsletter Applied Psychology (Vol. 9, No. 2) the following item appears: "Cooperation between the CPA Committee on the Status of Women and the CPA Committee on Ethics resulted in the following policy statement being adopted by the Board of Directors: 'Use or misuse of current knowledge which implies that there is scientific evidence which justifies prejudicial discrimination against any individual based on age, sex, gender, socioeconomic status, physical and mental abilities or handicaps, ethnic origin, marital status, parental status, or sexual preference is unethical.'" According to the author, a careful reading of this policy statement reveals that it contains a number of unnecessary phrases. Eliminating the extra words simplifies and clarifies the policy. Once the questionable, redundant, and/or unnecessary verbiage has been edited from the policy, the modified statement reflects the true meaning of the more complex item published in Applied Psychology: Use of knowledge is unethical. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To ask, or not to ask, about abuse--New Zealand research.

Comments on the article by K. Becker-Blease and J. Freyd (see record 2006-03947-003), which addressed the ethics of asking and not asking research subjects about abuse. J. Read reviews some clinical research in New Zealand in which there was a low level of inquiry about abuse by mental health staff, and notes that this is consistent with the results of similar studies elsewhere. He agrees with Becker-Blease and Freyd that there are many consequences to researchers and clinicians of not asking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)