Certification, licensing, and the movement of psychologists from state to state.

"The licensing or certification of psychologists… exists to protect the consumer from dangerous or inferior commodities. As an alternative to legislation creating certifying and licensing laws, some states have established nonstatuatory certifying boards." Generally these boards are corporations. A table titled "Some Characteristics of Psychology Laws" lists 26 states and 4 Canadian provinces, the coverage of each law, education requirements, experience requirements, whether examinations are mandatory, whether there is reciprocity, and whether residence is required. A 2nd table titled "Some Characteristics of Nonstatuatory Psychology Provisions" incorporates information under the same major headings. "A study of the laws indicates that with few exceptions the doctorate is required after the initial grand fathering." 2 or more years of experience are required in the majority of states. "An overwhelming majority of statutes requires an examination. Most of the laws cover the use of the title 'Psychologist' and restrict the use of the title to those who hold themselves out to the public as psychologists and request a fee for their services." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional licensing.

Claims that S. J. Gross's (see record 1979-26957-001) article on the myth of professional licensing is a study of rhetoric under the guise of rational-scientific discourse. Emphasis is placed on the importance of developing reliable and valid measures of competency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responses of psychologists to complaints filed against them with a state licensing board.

Psychologists are well aware of the possibility of complaints to licensing boards by clients, interns, employees, and others. As many as 11% of psychologists may have to respond to a complaint during their careers. Data collected by a licensing board from psychologists who had complaints filed against them were analyzed. Those who were found to have committed a violation were compared with those who were found to have committed no violation. The violation group (a) reported many more sequelae, including the expenditure of more time and money and the occurrence of more medical and psychological problems and (b) perceived the process and outcome as less fair. These findings suggest that review and modification of the complaint process are needed and that psychological and professional services may be helpful during and after complaint adjudication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The question of psychologists' maltreatment by state licensing boards: Overcoming denial and seeking remedies.

The state and provincial boards that regulate the practice of psychology may regularly engage in a variety of investigative and enforcement practices that fail to provide due-process protection for accused psychologists. Because psychology regulatory boards operate under administrative law, rather than under civil or criminal law, familiar due-process protections may be considered unnecessary, or they may be perceived to be antithetical to the mandate of these boards to protect the public. Examples of board practices that bypass due-process protection are provided. An agenda is offered to state psychological associations to monitor the actions of their state psychology boards, to independently investigate complaints by members of unfair board practices, to offer support to members facing licensing complaints, and to propose appropriate legislative remedies for unfair board practices in their respective states and provinces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and the courts: Some implications of recent judicial decisions for state licensing boards.

Licensing boards for psychologists are increasingly being subjected to court challenges of their decisions. This article reviews several recent judicial decisions concerning licensing boards and the issues of eligibility for licensure, evaluation of candidates for licensure, and enforcement of licensing laws. The outcome in nearly all of the cases was primarily determined by the degree to which licensing boards adhered to principles of due process. Implications of these findings for the administration of boards, particularly in the area of rules and regulations, are discussed. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The myth of professional licensing.

The public and most professionals believe that occupational licensing protects service consumers against charlatans and incompetents. The present review of historical, economic, and sociological research indicates a specious association between licensing and the competence of practitioners. Rather, it is suggested that the evidence reveals licensing to be a mystifying arrangement that promises protection of the public but that actually institutionalizes a lack of accountability to the public. The collusion between the state and the professions, which may be justified in altruistic terms, appears not to merit public confidence. It is concluded that acknowledging the failure of licensing is preparatory to defining the problem of how to protect the public. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Screening licensing examinations for accuracy.

In the version of the Examination for the Professional Practice of Psychology administered nationally to candidates for state licensing in April, 1987, there appeared at least two questions that were of questionable accuracy when scored as prescribed. Despite the fact that the accuracy of the items was called into question at least 6 months prior to the examination date, the Examination Committee of the American Association of State Psychology Boards (AASPB) declines to delete the two items. The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Psychology, which had unanimously challenged the items, discovered that 5 of its applicants for licensing had failed the examination on the basis of "wrong" answers to the challenged questions. As a result, the Massachusetts Board voted to grant licenses to the 5 psychologists in question. The implications of these events are significant for other psychology licensing boards across the country. Prior review of the draft examinations should be undertaken regularly, and in setting passing scores, state licensing boards should take account of inappropriate items that are retained by the AASPB Examination Committee. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leader-member interaction in management committees.

Leader-group interaction was studied to determine the effect of leaders with varying degrees of directiveness. Group activity was observed with individuals high and low in "control," as established by a questionnaire. The results indicate that when a leader exerts effective (frequent but low magnitude of) control, the group moves towards more successful resolutions of problems; that when leaders are low in skillful control, group members begin to vie with one another for leadership. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2CF60S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accountability and complexity of thought.

Explored the impact of accountability (the need to justify one's views to others) on the complexity of people's thinking on controversial social issues. 48 undergraduates reported their thoughts on 3 issues and then responded to a series of attitude scales relevant to each topic. Ss provided this information under 1 of 4 conditions: expecting their attitudes to be anonymous or expecting to justify their attitudes to an individual with liberal, conservative, or unknown views. Consistent with previous work on strategic attitude shifts, Ss reported more liberal attitudes when they expected to justify their views to a conservative. Accountability also increased the integrative complexity and evaluative inconsistency of the thoughts reported on each issue but only when Ss expected to justify their attitudes to an individual with unknown views. Findings suggest that accountability leads to more complex information processing only when people do not have the cognitively lazy option of simply expressing views similar to those of the individual to whom they feel accountable. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desirable but neglected consequences of licensing psychologists.

Contends that S. J. Danish and M. A. Smyer (see record 1981-33472-001), in treating the unintended consequences of licensing, omitted 2 desirable consequences: (1) the continuing development of the science of psychology and (2) the implementation of resulting advances by practitioners. It is concluded that the benefits seem to outweigh the nontrial social costs inherent in any licensing system by a considerable margin. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nomination procedures for APA boards and committees.

In response to several inquiries that have been received from members of APA boards and committees concerning the procedures employed in placing a name on a ballot for election to a particular board or committee, the Board of Directors has requested that a statement of the procedures followed be made available to all board, committee, and Council members. The procedures are outlined. In placing a name on the ballot, the Board of Directors attempts to select an individual who is knowledgeable in a particular area and to ensure age, geographic location, work setting, and psychological specialty variation in the composition of APA boards and committees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The behavior of nonpsychologists on research review committees.

The power to pass on the acceptability of psychological research is being given with increasing frequency to research review committees that usually include nonpsychologists (NPs). Thus, it is important for researchers to be able to anticipate the likely reactions of NPs to the content and procedures of their experiments. This article reviews research of factors affecting the acceptability of psychological research by NPs, and suggests further research (e.g., on the role of personality and situational variables) to help clarify the behavior of NPs on research review committees. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validation of voting committees

This article contains a method to bound the test errors of voting committees with members chosen from a pool of trained classifiers. There are so many prospective committees that validating them directly does not achieve useful error bounds. Because there are fewer classifiers than prospective committees, it is better to validate the classifiers individually than use linear programming to infer committee error bounds. We test the method using credit card data. Also, we extend the method to infer bounds for classifiers in general.     

Assessing research competence in a psychology licensing examination.

Discusses impressions about the quality of several hundred research essays submitted by candidates who took the New York State Licensing Examination and presents a list of 16 desirable elements of answers to research questions. Suggestions are made for improving the research competence of psychologists and for assessing that competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The replication licensing system

The replication licensing system acts to ensure that no section of the genome is replicated more than once in a single cell cycle. Experiments using Xenopus egg extracts have revealed that the licensing system consists of two components, named RLF-M and RLF-B. Whereas the function of RLF-B is still unclear, RLF-M has been shown to consist of all six members of the MCM/P1 family proteins, which appear to be the structural component of the licensing system. The origin recognition complex (ORC) and Cdc6/Cdc18 are needed on chromatin before the licensing reaction can take place, although they are not themselves components of the licensing system. Cell cycle events and cyclin-dependent protein kinases (Cdks) also seem to be involved in controlling the licensing system to ensure once per cell cycle DNA replication. The subject of this review is to detail our current understanding of the licensing system and the way that it interacts with other components of the cell cycle machinery.     

The medico-social aspects of liquor licensing

The present Licensing Law has failed in its stated purpose of diminishing the misuse of alcohol. On the contrary the misuse of alcohol is increasing year by year. The recommendations of the Scottish Departmental Committee (1971-1973) would, if fully implemented, go far to remedying this defect by providing effective legislative support encouraging improved social attitudes to drink. The Licensing (Scotland) Bill 1976 will, from a technical point of view, discard much that was obsolete and promote much that is wise in the practice of licensing, but if passed into law unchanged the Bill will not have the full social impact on drinking habits and, therefore, on the misuse of alcohol for which we had hoped.     

我国行政问责与党内问责一体化的思考

通过对执政党与国家公共权力关系及现有制度体系的思考,认为完善问责制的一个重要途径即行政问责与党内问责必须一体化,从而实现问责效果的公正性.     

Accountability and helping: When needs exceed resources.

Examined the possibility that when clients' needs exceed available resources, making a helping agent accountable to either the provider or recipients of resources impairs helping. To test this prediction, a bogus service agency was created in which 66 male university students allocated financial resources among 6 financial aid applicants. Accountability was manipulated by telling some Ss that immediately after allotting grants they would report their decisions to a representative of the agency (provider accountability); others were told that they would report their decisions to all 6 applicants (recipient accountability); still others were told that their decisions would remain entirely confidential (no accountability). Sufficiency of resources was varied by setting the S's financial aid budget at a level that was either more or less than adequate to meet all applicants' needs. As predicted, when applicants' needs exceeded resources, accountability led to less effective use of resources than did no accountability. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)