Sara S. Sparrow (1933–2010).

Sara S. Sparrow passed away in New Haven, Connecticut, on June 10, 2010. She spent her final days in characteristically good spirits with close friends and her husband, Dominic Cicchetti, by her side. Sara was born on May 9, 1933, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After graduating summa cum laude from Montclair State College in New Jersey in 1958, she began her career as a speech therapist in Orlando, Florida. She continued her studies at the University of Florida, receiving a master’s degree in speech pathology in 1962 and a doctoral degree in clinical psychology and clinical neuropsychology in 1968. Following completion of her doctorate, Sara became a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. Sara’s contributions to science were many, and she was directly responsible for substantially improving the quality of life of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. Her major professional contribution was transforming the assessment of adaptive behavior with the development of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, the first life-span, norm-referenced measure of adaptive behavior. Sara’s contributions were recognized with numerous awards. Sara was a longstanding and active member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and was deeply invested in the mission and success of APA Division 33 (Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities). Sara was a leader not only in her formal roles and responsibilities but also as a formative social force; she and her husband Dom shared their gifts as connoisseurs of wine, food, and living well with their colleagues and trainees. Sara’s warmth and ability to create a festive environment ensured that her students had the opportunity to meet potential collaborators and to share life as well as work stories. She was a model for her students in her passion and careful investment in her work as well as in her zeal and enjoyment of life. Sara is deeply mourned by her husband, siblings, many friends, and the countless students and colleagues whom she has influenced. A memorial fund has been established at the Yale Child Study Center in her name. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remission: An experiential account.

In a highly subjective and experiential account, the author describes the ways in which she dealt with the diagnosis of terminal cancer, chemotherapy, and remission and offers observations of dealing with her illness in her clinical practice as well as in her personal life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on receiving an award.

Reflecting on the events that culminated in her receiving the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Applied Psychology as a Professional Practice, Canter, an independent practitioner, discusses the road she traveled to become a clinical psychologist and to become involved in professional organizational activities. She believes that this award was given to her because of her contributions to psychology over her lifetime as an effective and hardworking leader, mentor, and role model in her home state of Arizona and nationally. She addresses some of her ideas about effective leadership and mentoring in the American Psychological Association (APA), providing many examples from which she has learned. Canter also shares some thoughts about APA's position as a leader in the development and enforcement of professional ethics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Betty Horenstein Pickett (1926–2008).

Presents an obituary for Betty Horenstein Pickett who was best known for her long-term service in the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) as an administrator in both the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Described is her educational background as well as the positions she held and achievements throughout her career in government service. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Love and sex in 45 minutes: Transference love as self- and mutual regulation.

Patients who express intense, erotic attraction to their analysts pose special treatment challenges that may not respond well to the analyst's interpretive efforts. A detailed case presentation is offered, describing one such patient, who demanded that her analyst convey his interest in her concretely, insisting that he offer her gifts, tell her he loved her, and even engage her sexually. It is argued that such concrete conveyances reflect, in part, the patient's attempt to self- and mutually regulate intense, affect-laden experience. The wish that the analyst demonstrate love for the patient expressed in modulated form her history of deeply painful and frustrated longings, as well as her hope for a different outcome within the treatment relationship. Finally, their spontaneous, shared playfulness evolved into a form of ongoing relatedness that provided the patient significant understanding and acceptance while providing the analyst an appropriate means of responding to the patient's erotic demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Jane Loevinger (1918-2008).

Jane Loevinger died unexpectedly on January 4, 2008. She was well-known for her work in psychometrics, her theory of ego development, and her widely used assessment instrument, the Washington University Sentence Completion Test. Among the first to focus on women as a demographic, Loevinger obtained funding from the National Institute of Mental Health. She developed measures of women's attitudes and formed a research group of her own that focused on the problems facing mothers and women in general. Loevinger was a perennial iconoclast and skeptic within her fields of interest. Despite her wry wit, or perhaps because of it, her opinions and contributions came to be greatly valued by her colleagues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marie Skodak Crissey (1910-2000): Obituary.

Reports the death of Marie Skodak Crissey (1910-2000). The author discusses her life accomplishments as well as her contribution to the field of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Florence Nightingale. A 19th-century mystic

The purpose of this article is to cast new and refreshing light on Florence Nightingale's life and work by examining her personality type. Using the theory-based Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the author examines Nightingale's personality type and reveals that she was an introverted-intuitive-thinking-judging (INTJ) type. The merit of using the MBTI is that it allows us to more clearly understand three major areas of Nightingale's life that have been partially unacknowledged or misunderstood: her spiritual development as a practicing mystic, her management of her chronic illness to maintain her prodigious work output, and her chosen strategies to transform her visionary ideas into new health care and social realities.     

Nancy Joy Kerr (1933-2001).

Reports the death of Nancy Joy Kerr (1933-2001). The authors discuss her contributions to rehabilitation psychology as well as her various personal and professional accomplishments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tracy Seedman Kendler (1918-2001): Obituary.

Reports the death of Tracy Seedman Kendler (1918-2001). The author describes her educational background as well as her contributions to the field of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologist-legislator: Reflection on the first year in office.

As a Massachusetts State Representative, the author describes how being a psychologist affected her campaign and 1st year in office. Her history of past and current political interests in women, education, labor, and human services has contributed to her legislative and political agenda. This article reports how the Massachusetts Psychological Association played a significant role in her campaign and how mental health issues have been her top priority. Serving as a state legislator has integrated her 2 passions: political activism and psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lucy May Boring (1886–1996).

Notes the death of Lucy May Boring at the age 109. Her brief career as a psychologists is outlined, starting with her contribution, under the name Day, to the American Journal of Psychology in 1912. She gave up her career as a psychologist for family life. The role she has played in the career of her husband, Edwin G. Boring, is highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Benner and expertise in nursing: a critique

This paper examines the work of Benner (From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice. Addison-Wesley, Menlo Park, CA, 1984) on expertise in clinical nursing. The philosophical foundations of her work are explained as well as the work located within the wider context of the use of Heideggerian philosophy. Various criticisms of her study are developed in relationship to her methodology and her interpretation of nursing. It is argued that she represents a retreat into tradition and authority in nursing.     

Self-knowledge of an amnesic patient: Toward a neuropsychology of personality and social psychology.

Presents the case of W. J., an 18-yr old female who, as a result of a head injury, temporarily lost access to her episodic memory. W. J. was asked both during her amnesia and following its resolution to make trait judgments about herself. Because her responses when she could access episodic memories were consistent with her responses when she could not, the authors conclude that the loss of episodic memory did not greatly affect the availability of her trait self-knowledge. The authors discuss how neuropsychological evidence can contribute to theorizing about personality and social processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Myrtle B. McGraw (1899–1988).

Myrtle Byram McGraw "...was born in the 19th century, lived in the 20th century, and thought in the 21st century." She was a woman who treated the infants and young children she worked with the same as she would her friends. She came to know her subjects well, and maintained enduring and intense relationships with some. She could become compassionately involved in the struggles of families and the problems of children growing up. Myrtle knew a great deal about transitional struggles, her work with babies serving often as her metaphor of what life, learning, and development are all about. McGraw passed away on McGraw September 8, 1988, in her 89th year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

McGraw's Need for Denial.

Comments on the letter by M. McGraw ("Need for denial," American Psychologist, 1964, 19, 56), in which McGraw, best known for her developmental study of the twins Johnny and Jimmy, feels it necessary to disparage an early study (McGraw, 1931) of hers dealing with the comparative mental abilities of white and Negro infants. McGraw writes that Otto Klineberg told her recently that the present author had quoted her early and discredited (by her) study as evidence for innate racial differences. The present author states that this is only partly correct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimenting with experience: A psychotherapeutic case study.

Applied personal construct theory to a 24-yr-old Australian female who was anxiety-ridden to demonstrate some of its advantages as a therapeutic tool. The limited choices available to the client (because of her oversimplified and confused ways of viewing her world) are described, together with her related anxiety, shame, fear, and depression. Implications for the selection and training of therapists are explored. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The baby and the marriage: Identifying factors that buffer against decline in marital satisfaction after the first baby arrives.

This longitudinal study identified factors of couples' marital friendship in the beginning months of marriage that predicted stability versus decline in marital satisfaction over the transition to parenthood. Newlywed couples (N?=?130) were followed longitudinally for 6 years. 43 couples became parents, and 39 childless couples served as a control group. Couples were interviewed about the history and philosophy of their relationship as newlyweds. What predicted the stable or increasing marital satisfaction of mothers were the husband's expression of fondness toward her, the husband's high awareness for her and their relationship, and her awareness for her husband and their relationship. In contrast, what predicted the decline in marital satisfaction of mothers were the husband's negativity toward his wife, the husband's disappointment in the marriage, or the husband or wife having described their lives as chaotic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)