Social support as a focus for integrative research in psychology.

Examines contemporary interest in the nature and health-protective effects of social support in light of the historical evolution of community psychology. Fostering of social support systems offers an avenue toward primary prevention, and the social network as a unit of social structure lends greater meaning and psychological import to the term community. Priorities for research on the topic of social support are discussed, with particular attention given to potential contributions from other branches of psychology, including the personality, social, developmental, and cognitive areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus reduction as a technique in health psychology.

The uses of the Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (REST) in health psychology, and theoretical explanations for its effectiveness, can be understood in the context of its impact on cognitive processes and on behaviors related to information overload in the normal environment. Cognitive effects, including openness to new information and better concentration, have been applied in the induction of habit change (cessation of smoking, weight reduction); the interruption of stimulus bombardment is central in the utilization of REST in stress management (hypertension, childhood dysfunctions). This paper reviews data on the inclusion of REST in health psychology programs, and suggests directions for further clinical research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Animal behavior models in health psychology research.

This editorial introduces four articles in this issue of Health Psychology. The four articles are based on symposium presentations from the eighth annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. These articles, which describe the use of animal behavior models to study atherogenesis and hypertension, have clear implications for our understanding of relationships between behavior and health. They complement reports of animal research previously published in this journal dealing with such topics as DNA repair and immunosuppression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral toxicology and environmental health science: Opportunity and challenge for psychology.

Describes the establishment of behavioral toxicology as a component of the environmental health sciences. Behavioral measures are viewed as fulfilling unique roles because (1) many substances act primarily on the nervous system; (2) many poisonings before they bloom into overt clinical signs may be heralded by vague, subjective, nonspecific psychological complaints; and (3) there are substances whose actions, although not mediated directly through nervous system mechanisms, produce distinct behavioral reactions. Behavioral toxicology extends across the total spectrum of environmental chemicals, including heavy metals, solvents, fuels, pesticides, air pollutants, and even food additives. Examples are presented of the role psychology can play in resolving critical issues in environmental health science. (76 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral medicine, clinical health psychology, and cost offset.

The use of medical services is a function of several interacting psychological and social variables as well as a function of physical malfunction. The clinical significance of addressing patients' psychosocial issues has only occasionally been considered. However, the shift in health care economics toward health care maintenance is responsible for the increased interest in interventions in the domain of behavioral medicine and health psychology. Evidence is reviewed for 6 mechanistic pathways by which behavioral interventions can maximize clinical care and result in significant economic benefits. The rationale for further integration of behavioral and biomedicine interventions is also reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral and biomedical research: a partnership for better health

In the last decade, global use of contraceptive methods has increased. About 50% of couples of childbearing age use a modern contraceptive method. This evolution and a positive change in attitude towards male contraception has encouraged research in fertility regulation to enlarge and to improve acceptance of the contraceptive mix. Current injectable contraceptives interfere with the menstrual cycle. Research is exploring ways to minimize such secondary effects by reducing the total hormone dose and by changing the way the active product is delivered (e.g., microspheres). An injectable prototype is an analogue of levonorgestrel (HRP 002). A new IUD is made of leather suspended by a nylon suture which has been inserted into the uterine muscle. RU-486, often used to interrupt early pregnancy, is being tested as an oral contraceptive (OC). It inhibits secretion of gonadotropins and ovulation. It holds promise as an OC with no estrogen component. Since it also inhibits endometrial development and thus prevents implantation, it may someday be used for emergency contraception (i.e., postcoital contraception). New contraceptive implants under study include Norplant RII (2 rods of levonorgestrel lasting for 3 years), Implanon (desogestrel), and Capranor (biodegradable implant lasting 2 years). The female condom consists of a flexible polyurethane sheath with a flexible ring at each end. It has the potential to protect against sexually transmitted diseases since it covers the labial lips and is impermeable to HIV. France and Switzerland have both approved its use. It will enter the UK market at the end of the year. Approval for marketing has been sought in the US.     

A model course in social psychology and health.

Describes a model course for social science and premedical undergraduates concerned with interpersonal aspects of psychology as they relate to health and illness. The course is based on (1) the results of a survey of faculty (N?=?112) in medicine and health psychology; (2) the 2-yr teaching experiences of the authors; (3) input of experts in the field; and (4) evaluations from students in psychology, sociology, and the health sciences. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidentiary pluralism as a strategy for research and evidence-based practice in rehabilitation psychology.

Objective: This article examines the utility of evidentiary pluralism, a research strategy that selects methods in service of content questions, in the context of rehabilitation psychology. Hierarchical views that favor randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) over other evidence are discussed, and RCTs are considered as they intersect with issues in the field. RCTs are vital for establishing treatment efficacy, but whether they are uniformly the best evidence to inform practice is critically evaluated. Conclusions: The authors argue that because treatment is only one of several variables that influence functioning, disability, and participation over time, an expanded set of conceptual and data analytic approaches should be selected in an informed way to support an expanded research agenda in which therapeutic and extratherapeutic influences on rehabilitation processes and outcomes is investigated. The benefits of evidentiary pluralism are considered, including those that help close the gap between the narrower clinical rehabilitation model and a public health disability model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Education for research in psychology.

A report of a seminar held at Estes Park, Colorado, July 28-August 22, 1958, sponsored by the Education and Training Board of the American Psychological Association. The purpose of the seminar was "to provide information which would aid institutions giving graduate degrees in psychology in examining and improving their programs for training research men." Major sections are: (a) How Research Gets Done; (b) Formal Aspects of Graduate Training (Statistics, Other Tool Subjects, Breadth of Scholarship, Role of Theory in Research, Standardization), (c) Development of the Individual (Selection, Motivation, Apprenticeship); (d) Summing Up. Research is "learned by doing and taught mainly by contagion. Research must first be going on if there is to be research training… . Apprenticeship is, we believe, the most important part of education for research in psychology; the professor who hires a graduate student as a research assistant takes on the primary teaching responsibility for that student, a responsibility which both he and his department must recognize." Opposition is expressed to standardizing training programs for research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model for home-based psychology from the veterans health administration.

The changing healthcare environment is creating opportunities for psychologists to practice in non-traditional settings. This paper describes a Veterans Health Administration (VA) initiative to integrate psychologists into its Home Based Primary Care (HBPC) program. As psychologists new to HBPC are learning, the home offers opportunities and challenges not routinely encountered in the traditional office setting. Home-based psychology offers improved access to mental health services, more effective treatment planning, and more accurate assessments in an underserved patient population. Psychologists practicing in this setting also encounter challenges in dealing with patient confidentiality, distractions, role confusion and boundaries, time management, safety, and professional competency. The VA experience is an instructive case example for psychologists considering this growing field of practice. This paper offers lessons learned from this VA initiative and discusses strategies for dealing with potential challenges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unification as a goal for psychology.

Comments on an article by A. W. Staats (see record 1992-03794-001) recommending a unified positivism to save psychology's threatened scientific status. However, while a unified psychology might be desirable, the disparate bodies of empirical data may not lend themselves to a unified positivism that assumes underlying principles connecting all the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methodological considerations in participant event monitoring of low-base-rate events in health psychology: Children's injuries as a model.

The present article outlines the advantages of the participant event monitoring methodology for the investigation of unpredictable, low-base-rate events in children. Several methods for assessing the quality of participant event monitoring data are advanced with a data set showing participant event monitoring of children's minor injuries by 61 children and their mothers. Child–mother correspondence and debriefing data suggest good accuracy for frequency estimates. Home- and laboratory-based simulations illustrate the participant event monitors' accuracy for major details. Traditional measures of data quality show good overall coder and test–retest reliability, and cross-observer reports show acceptable estimates of validity for objective aspects of the events and the expected lower estimates for the more subjective aspects. Conceptual and pragmatic difficulties of the method are considered, and suggestions for future research are advanced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Establishing the study of development as a dynamic force in health psychology.

Comments on establishing the concept of development as a dynamic force in the field of health psychology. It is contended that one potential direction is an increased emphasis on life-span interventions and on the identification of critical developmental junctures of vulnerability to health risks and receptivity toward health interventions. The most effective way to map those areas of development in which highest risk or greatest receptivity in intervention occurs is to examine the process of development by using a longitudinal design with age-appropriate, periodic measurement of all relevant variables. For the most part, psychologists' interests should be on the area in the developmental continuum that characterizes study participants' abilities and experiences, instead of participants' chronological age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The new research agenda for a cultural psychology.

Qualitative methods are the investigative tools of choice for the field of cultural psychology, in which the study of meaning is central. The process of cultural psychological research calls for an approach that emphasizes the quality of the relationship between researchers and participants. We argue for the importance of this relationship in the development of the validity and usefulness of such work. Methods within this framework often include dialectic communication, respect, participatory partnership, inductive reasoning, and the taking of extra time as necessary. In this paper, research projects with urban Canadian street youth, Inuit prison inmates, and Inuit community members experiencing a youth suicide epidemic are provided as case studies that highlight the relational motif in qualitative research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The increasing role of psychology health research and interventions and a vision for the future.

Psychology is on the cusp of becoming a major contributor to the health of the people living in the United States. Over the past 50 years, psychology research and psychologically based interventions and prevention strategies have increasingly influenced the health of people and health care services in the United States. In this article, the authors review briefly the first 40 years of psychology's development as a health profession. An overview of the accelerating changes for psychological involvement in health since the millennium follows. Then, a vision for the future is presented. This article has as its theoretical base a biopsychosocialcultural model of health that places increasing influence on the role of culture, which includes race, ethnicity, social class, gender, physical ablebodiness, and developmental age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Statistics as a second language? A model for predicting performance in psychology students.

Tested a model twice among 91 university students (Test 1) and 64 of the 91 Ss (Test 2) for predicting the performance of psychology students in statistics. Previous research (e.g., L. B. Feinberg and S. Halperin; see record 1980-22092-001) examined statistical performance in relation to 3 classes of variables: anxiety, attitudes, and ability. These variables were the essential components of an educational model developed by R. C. Gardner (see record 1985-10751-001) within the context of 2nd language learning. Measures assessing mathematical aptitude, math anxiety, and attitudinal and motivational variables were administered to Ss. A causal model linking these variables was proposed and tested, using a LISREL analysis. Results generally supported the model. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral explanations and intentional explanations in psychology.

A recent criticism of behaviorism asserts that intentional explanations in psychology are acceptable and preferable to behavioral explanations. The philosopher D. C. Dennett justifies intentional explanations on the grounds that they are provisional and can be cashed out in principle. Skinner objected to such explanations on the grounds that they are never cashed out in practice. Their different views arise from their divergent goals for psychology: understanding intelligence and rationality vs understanding behavior. In the context of a science of behavior, intentional explanations only give the semblance of explanation because they rely on immediate causes that are fictional. Nonintentional explanations acceptable for a science of behavior are historical, much as in evolutionary biology. When Dennett's argument is applied to evolutionary biology, it becomes a justification of creationism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sociodemographic factors in health psychology research: 12 years in review.

The article provides a 12-year review of health psychology research through a content analysis of the journal Health Psychology. Empirical studies of adults (n?=?490) and children (n?=?103) published between 1985–1996 were assessed with respect to information reported on race, income, education level, gender, and age characteristics of study participants. Although gender and age were usually reported, several studies did not provide race, income, or education information. However, time-trend analyses revealed significant improvements over the past few years in reporting of race, education, and age in articles on adults and in race reporting in articles on children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment in health psychology.

Reviews recent developments in assessment in health psychology by considering theoretical and methodological contributions and surveying 25 measures commonly employed in research and treatment settings. The limitations of traditional approaches to assessment are outlined, and alternative measurement strategies derived from contemporary personality theory and stress and coping theory are discussed. Measures of psychological predictors and outcomes of health-related behaviors are reviewed, and examples of different methods of assessment (self-report, observer rating, and behavioral) are provided for each. The instruments are outlined in table form, describing the method of measurement, construct measured, response format, subscales, features and limitations, and examples of use in health-psychology research. (French abstract) (129 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)