Negative effects from psychological treatments: A perspective.

The author offers a 40-year perspective on the observation and study of negative effects from psychotherapy or psychological treatments. This perspective is placed in the context of the enormous progress in refining methodologies for psychotherapy research over that period of time, resulting in the clear demonstration of positive effects from psychological treatments for many disorders and problems. The study of negative effects—whether due to techniques, client variables, therapist variables, or some combination of these—has not been accorded the same degree of attention. Indeed, methodologies suitable for ascertaining positive effects often obscure negative effects in the absence of specific strategies for explicating these outcomes. Greater emphasis on more individual idiographic approaches to studying the effects of psychological interventions would seem necessary if psychologists are to avoid harming their patients and if they are to better understand the causes of negative or iatrogenic effects from their treatment efforts. This would be best carried out in the context of a strong collaboration among frontline clinicians and clinical scientists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An ecological perspective on leadership theory, research, and practice.

Current theories of leadership are based mainly on the industrial paradigm emphasizing the preeminence of positional leaders and the machine-like qualities of organizations. Evolutionary and attributional biases tend to reinforce the industrial paradigm. The authors propose an ecological theory of leadership that makes 4 important assertions: (a) Effective leadership processes involve temporary resolutions of a tension between the traditional industrial approach and the neglected ecological approach; (b) specific leaders are less important than they appear because the ecological context is more important than what leaders decide to do; (c) organizations are more adaptive when there is a diversity of genuine input into decision-making processes; and (d) leadership itself is an emergent process arising from the human interactions that make up the organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Personality theory and research: An international perspective.

Reviews the book, Personality theory and research: An international perspective by Gordon L. Flett (2007). On the whole, this is an excellent textbook. It provides a balance between discussion of theory and research, both contemporary and historical, from an international and cross-cultural perspective. It makes a special effort to highlight research contributions made by researchers in Canada and countries other than the United States. The book also emphasises the science underlying personality psychology and acknowledges the practical aspects of personality theory and research. This textbook contains 14 chapters, which are well-written, focus on interesting empirical and real-world examples, and include sections that should facilitate student comprehension. This textbook provides a good introduction to personality theory and research. It makes a convincing argument that personality matters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

What is nomothetic about “nomothetic” personality research?

Were it one's purpose to set rolling in scornful impatience the eyes of those who currently animate the discipline of personality psychology, one could scarcely do better than to initiate some discussion of the so-called "nomothetic vs. idiographic" controversy, a dispute that has nagged the field for at least the past 50 years. The author has been persuaded that the need for such an analysis will prevail for just so long as it takes the legion but, alas, ersatz "nomotheticists' of personality psychology to finally get it right: The knowledge yielded by conventional' 'nomothetic' personality research has never been, is not now, and will never be nomothetic in any sense of the term to which a personality theorist would be compelled to bow. When all is said and done, it is only this dogma, as fallacious as it is resilient, that has nourished some six decades of "nomothetic" hegemony and, in the process, served repeatedly as the grounds for summarily banishing to their collective corner dispirited critics such as Allport (cf. Allport, 1966). But while the intimidating hubris of psychometric sophisticates may heretofore have muted many who, in their alleged "romanticism" (Holt, 1962) dared to challenge conventional "nomothetic" wisdom, such browbeating does not dispel ghosts—Teutonic or otherwise. There are certain essentially epistemological problems with which apologists for traditional "nomotheticism" simply must come to grips, and if prior critics of the dominant paradigm failed to articulate those problems adequately (and I believe that this is the case, cf. Lamiell, 1985), then the struggle must be joined anew, because the problems are genuine and they are not just going to evaporate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An integrative conceptual framework of disability: New directions for research.

Advances in research on disability and rehabilitation are essential to creating equal opportunity, economic self-sufficiency, and full participation for persons with disabilities. Historically, such initiatives have focused on separate and specific areas, including neuroscience, molecular biology and genetics, gerontology, engineering and physical sciences, and social and behavioral sciences. Research on persons with disabilities should examine the broader context and trends of society that affect the total environment of persons with disabilities. This article examines the various disability paradigms across time, assessing the relative contribution of the socioecological perspective in guiding research designed to improve the lives of persons with disabilities. The authors recommend new research directions that include a focus on life span issues, biomedicine, biotechnology, the efficacy and effectiveness of current interventions, an emphasis on consumer-driven investigations within a socioecological perspective of disability, and the implications for research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Putting psychology in its place: An introduction from a critical historical perspective.

Review of book: Putting Psychology in its Place: An Introduction from a Critical Historical Perspective by Graham Richards, Routledge, 1996, x + 197 pp. Reviewed by Raymond E. Francher. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mentoring in research: A developmental approach.

Psychologists are frequently called on to mentor students, trainees, and early faculty in various aspects associated with research. Little formal training is provided to mentors on how to effectively and successfully mentor trainees at the various developmental levels of the training process. The authors apply a developmental focus to the mentoring relationship. The literature on research mentoring is reviewed, including a review of mentorship with women and ethnic minorities. The multiple roles and functions of mentorship for clinical researchers and research scientists also are explored. Finally, the authors provide a list of the top 6 skills and behaviors that enable successful mentoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The helplessness–hopelessness theory and daily mood experience: An idiographic and cross-situational perspective.

The experience sampling method was used to examine the helplessness–hopelessness theory as a model of normal mood fluctuations. Ninety-one participants were signaled 5 times daily for a 1-week period to provide reports of negative events, specific cognitions, and anxiety and depression. Attributional and perception of control styles did not explain anxious or depressed moods, but they were predictive of the causal attributions and perceptions of control made across diverse environmental contexts. Furthermore, idiographic analyses demonstrated that specific causal attributions about negative events explained fluctuations in depressed mood within the flow of daily life. In contrast to the theory, perceptions of event controllability were not related to fluctuations in anxious mood or to the later formulation of causal attributions. Implications for understanding normal mood experience and the helplessness–hopelessness theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An investigation of early research experience and research self-efficacy.

Graduate students in psychology typically report that they either love research or hate research. Despite the fact that most doctoral students in psychology enter some type of clinical practice upon graduation, research is a requirement for all students enrolled in scientist-practitioner programs regardless of their career aspirations beyond graduation. Research advances knowledge in the field of psychology and often guides clinical practice, yet very few psychologists conduct research after graduate school (C. J. Gelso, 1993). Efforts have been undertaken to determine factors that contribute to graduate students' research productivity. One such factor may be research self-efficacy. This study examined the influence of early research experience as a factor to bolster research self-efficacy. Results indicated that supportive peers and mentors contributed to positive research experiences. Additionally, positive team research experiences significantly predicted research self-efficacy. Implications for training programs and students are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Piecemeal and category-based evaluation: An idiographic analysis.

Provides the clearest evidence to date for 2 distinct person evaluation processes: 1 based on liking for person attributes and 1 based on social categorization. The processes were induced by stimulus design and experimenter suggestion. An idiographic technique was developed to empirically distinguish between the processes, whereby Ss categorized stimuli as they saw fit and indicated their liking for person attributes (personality traits) and social categories (academic majors). Both idiographic and nomothetic evidence for 2 evaluation processes was obtained. Also, individual differences and stable normative patterns were observed in how stimulus persons were categorized. Contrary to expectation, the degree of fit of stimulus to schema did not relate to the degree to which evaluations were category based. Implications for models of evaluation processing and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rape in non-human animals: An evolutionary perspective.

Rape-like behaviour has been documented in a number of species of animals. The purpose of this paper is to explain the evolutionary perspective on this behaviour. Several key concepts of modern evolutionary theory are first explained. Then the problem of defining rape in such a way that it is amenable to scientific study is discussed. Agonistic mating, altruistic mating, forced mating, and detrimental mating are defined in terms of costs and benefits to both male and female fitness. The introductory section concludes with a discussion of the role of genes in determining sexual behaviour and the nature of biological adaptations. Forced mating in orangutans, mallard ducks, and scorpionflies is described. The evolution of this behaviour is explained in terms of parental investment and sexual selection theory. Speculations on mechanisms that females might evolve to deal with this coercive male reproductive strategy conclude the paper. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Aristotelian resolution of the idiographic versus nomothetic tension.

The 20th century clash between psychologies that emphasize individual differences and those that emphasize general processes grows out of an older philosophical tension between the particular and universal facets of substance. Properly understood, Aristotle's analysis resolves this tension in a way that allows psychology to unify these perspectives on human functioning within a single focus. The key concept used is that of the developmental functional history (DFH) of the individual, the career of material functioning throughout an individual's existence that, among other general laws it follows, must be unique. The DFH is also developmentally cumulative in its effects. Earlier events have more far-reaching consequences on its organization than later ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Termination from a psychoanalytic perspective.

The following principles of termination have been derived from the confluence of psychoanalytic and other perspectives: (a) The timing of the termination is determined by the patient; (b) the frequency of meetings should be reduced and a final appointment scheduled some time after the second-to-last meeting; (c) the patient's stressors, previous dominant ways, and new ways of responding should be reviewed; (d) what the patient believes was accomplished should be discussed, (e) the therapist should inquire what was helpful and hurtful; (j) the therapist should inquire, if appropriate, whether there is something negative about the therapy leading the patient to terminate; (g) the therapist should equalize the relationship; and (h) the patient should be invited to correspond in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The generations of psychotherapy research: An overview.

Psychoanalytic therapy research can be divided into 4 generations, marked by increasing conceptual sophistication and technological enhancement. The 1st generation (1917–1968) comprised simple retrospective counts of improved outcomes by unspecified criteria. The 2nd generation (1959–1985) consisted of 2 kinds: (1) prospective group-aggregated studies of psychoanalytic treatments, with specified definitions, operationalized criteria, and predictions to expected outcomes, and (2) individually studied outcomes in a sequence of patients. The 3rd generation (1954–1986) combined both kinds of 2nd-generation studies with the added feature of separating outcomes at termination from the more enduring effects at subsequent follow-up. The 4th, current generation (1970s–) adds in microanalytic process studies made possible by recent technological advances-audiotapes, combined with computer searches. Programs are currently being fashioned to combine these ongoing process studies with the best outcome measures in order to realize the principle of Patient-Treatment-Outcome Congruence, the representation of the patient's illness, the treatment process, and assessed outcome in comparable terms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An asymmetrical transfer effect in research on knowledge of performance.

Gibbs and Brown reported that the motivational aspect of knowledge of results had a significant effect upon performance of a repetitive monotonous task, aside from its informative and rewarding aspects. Chapanis (see 39:2) duplicated the main features of the experiment and found there was no significant advantage in displaying output. The present note demonstrates that the discrepancy between these findings results from a difference between the experimental designs used. The 2-way asymmetrical transfer effects produced by Gibbs and Brown's design, in which Group I had condition K then NK, Group II had NK then K, show that knowledge of results may have a significant effect only when the task has previously been performed without it. The importance of other variables for future investigations of this topic are also briefly discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral sciences.

Reviews the book, The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral sciences by Neil Mck. Agnew and Sandra W. Pyke (see record 2007-07794-000). This book is an attempt to introduce a student or beginning researcher to the concepts and methods associated with doing good research in the behavioural sciences. The book is divided into six major parts, dealing in turn with the nature of science and observation; experimental methods; survey, archival and developmental methods; statistics; report writing and ethics; and theory building. The book is well produced and well organized. Specific exemplars of topics under consideration are included in boxes which give typical case reports, experimental designs, sample findings, and so forth. These boxed materials are good illustrations of and extrapolations from the material which the main body of the chapter tends to deal with. The writing style is clear and generally concise. Occasionally there are sparks of fantasy and humour which help to enliven long methodological passages. Overall, this is a well written and useful text. It is a difficult task to sustain interest and continuity in a book which deals almost completely with methodological and statistical issues. The authors have done a remarkably good job in this regard, and I would probably rate this as one of the better books in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An agenda for coaching-related research: A challenge for researchers.

The practice of coaching by individuals who consider themselves professional coaches has proliferated, yet coaching is not recognized as a profession. Through a metareview of scholarly works and a qualitative content analysis, an agenda for coaching-related research is proposed and applied to the criteria for a profession as a means of illustrating how coaching-related research can be utilized to support the professionalization of coaching. Recommendations for further study and their linkage to the criterion for professionalization are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)