A further comment on reafferentiation in psychology.

Questionnaire surveys can be an initial source of information on how the employer in the community service setting views the product of the University training departments. This article presents results from a study in which a questionnaire was mailed from the Psychology Department, University of Calgary to 58 employers or potential employers of psychologists in the Calgary community. Enquiries were made of their present use of psychological services, their needs, their views on adequacy and inadequacy of training, their need for inservice training, their views on academic level of training required, their theoretical orientation, and their interest in involvement in practicum training. The University psychology departments have a responsibility to use ongoing research and promising new discoveries in determining training policies, as well as to help meet the manpower needs in service settings. While University training in many instances will not be perfectly congruent with stated community requirements, it is important that there be communication of knowledge and expectations between University and community in order that graduates be employable and able to contribute their new knowledge to service programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

PhD recipients in psychology and biology: A comment.

Comments that the article by H. Schuckman (see record 1988-11977-001), reporting no difference in the rate of publication of male and female biology and psychology students in the 4 yrs following receipt of their PhD degrees, parallels the results of E. Goldstein (see record 1979-25912-001), and are in contrast with results reported by J. R. Cole and H. Zuckerman (see record 1988-15525-001). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology, psychoeducation, and health psychology: A comment on Klippel and DeJoy.

J. A. Klippel and D. M. DeJoy (see record 1984-20998-001) identified avenues, including psychoeducation, by which counseling psychologists can contribute substantially to the area of health psychology. Counseling psychology's relation with the psychoeducational model is examined briefly in the present paper. In training counseling psychologists to be psychoeducators, 3 areas are of potential importance: (a) training in the foundations, principles, and concepts of psychoeducation; (b) training in the development, implementation, and evaluation of psychoeducational programs; and (c) training in effective instructional skills. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assimilation of voices in psychotherapy: The case of Jan.

The authors present a marker-based method for tracking the assimilation of a previously outcast voice into the self, conceived as a community of voices. In a qualitative assimilation analysis of the case of Jan, a woman whose depressive symptoms abated in process experiential psychotherapy, the authors tracked 2 major themes, excerpted 43 relevant passages, and rated each passage on the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES). Ratings by 3 independent raters who used a marker-based APES manual were highly correlated with the investigators' consensus ratings. APES ratings tended to increase across sessions, as expected in successful therapy. The authors present passages to illustrate the assimilation of a voice of neediness and weakness by Jan's dominant superwoman voice and the assimilation of a voice of rebellion and assertiveness by Jan's dominant good-girl voice, yielding a more complex and flexible community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A theoretical note on models of interlimb coordination.

This article clarifies some points about models of interlimb coordination. The authors discuss in detail the predictions and extensions of the H. Haken et al (1985) model and compare these to a truncated version used by R. C. Schmidt and colleagues. It is demonstrated that procedures commonly used to fit experimental data to model parameters require the fulfillment of certain assumptions. Finally, the authors show how recent experimental findings can be modeled straightforwardly using a system of coupled nonlinear oscillators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on the neglected middle in teaching under-graduate psychology.

It is suggested that the future non-psychologist professionals, those who in their jobs make use of information provided by psychologists, do not sufficiently benefit from our traditional approach to the undergraduate teaching of psychology. A modified approach is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on legislation affecting Canadian psychology: The Ontario model.

New legislation affecting Psychology has been proposed recently in Ontario. If enacted, this legislation would set up a College of Psychology with wide discretionary powers and broad duties. Other legislation is proposed to govern such Colleges (Health Disciplines Act) and to create a College to credential competence rather than profession (the College of Mental Health Practitioners). These developments and their implications are discussed with respect to their impact on psychology across Canada. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on experimenter sampling in the graduate department of psychology.

A reasonable and economic solution to the cost of experimenter sampling and the problem of experimenter bias may be the formation of a pool of graduate students who are currently running either their own or their sponsor's research and who would equitably run a portion of each other's Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical psychology and the emergence of psychotherapy.

This article examines the relationship between clinical psychology and psychotherapy and describes the difficulties experienced by clinical psychologists in obtaining training in therapy before the development of doctoral programs in the clinical specialization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive psychology, epistemology, and psychotherapy: A motor-evolutionary perspective.

Argues for the integration of the principles of cognitive psychology and epistemology into a motor-evolutionary metatheory. Implications for psychotherapy are explored of the view that people are active construers of the world, guided by (largely tacit) abstract knowledge structures that grow via trial and error. These include the importance of adopting a critical but respectful attitude toward traditions of clients and therapists; the importance of variation and error; and the centrality of tacit knowledge, limitations on consciousness, and planned adaptation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A theoretical note on personality characteristics of heroin addicts.

Contends that P. B. Sutker's (see record 1972-09270-001) finding that heroin addicts produced a more elevated MMPI profile than a comparable sample of nonaddicts may have been due to the fact that heroin addicts were "volunteers" for treatment, unlike the nonaddict sample. The present study provided a demonstration of the effect of the "volunteer" factor on addict and nonaddict MMPI profiles. More elevated MMPI profiles were found both for volunteer addict and nonaddict Ss (n = 17) when compared to MMPI profiles of nonvolunteer addicts and nonaddicts (n = 33). The MMPI profiles of addicts and nonaddicts were quite similar when the volunteer factor was controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Traditional versus behavioral personality assessment: A comparison of methodological and theoretical assumptions.

Examines the traditional and behavioral approaches to the prediction of human behavior with respect to such underlying assumptions as the basic conception of personality functioning, the selection of test items, and the interpretation of responses. Whereas traditional tests of personality involve the assessment of hypothesized personality constructs which, in turn, are used to predict overt behavior, the behavioral approach entails more of a direct sampling of the criterion behaviors themselves. In addition to requiring fewer inferences than traditional tests, behavioral assessment procedures are seen as being based on assumptions more amenable to direct empirical test and more consistent with empirical evidence. The available research findings on the comparative predictive ability of the 2 approaches similarly suggest that the behavioral orientation is a potentially useful approach toward the construction of assessment procedures that can more accurately predict human behavior. (49 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical issues in theoretical psychology: Comment on Kukla.

It is far from clear that A. Kukla's (see record 1989-24526-001) vision of a discipline concerned with the rigorous development and analysis of psychological theory could be realized in a completely nonempirical theoretical psychology. This issue is discussed in terms of Kukla's treatment of artificial intelligence and his call for the development of theoretical and empirical psychology as distinct disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding AIDS developmentally: A comment on the November 1988 special issue on psychology and AIDS.

Comments on the concealment of major theoretical differences in psychology implied in the vague use of terms such as education, information giving, or communication and notes the need for attention to developmental process in education or prevention programs. Qualitatively different psychological processes related to cognitive development result in distinctively diverse ways of thinking about a disease. For instance, both adults and children may rely on concrete or magical thinking rather than abstract reasoning in their conception of any illness, including acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Thus, information must be tailored to systematic differences in cognitive maturity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of Canadian psychology departments based on citation and publication counts: A comment.

Comments on the article by A. R. Buss (see record 1976-26634-001), which purports to evaluate Canadian psychology departments in terms of productivity and impact upon the discipline. Publication counts and citation counts from the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) were tabulated for each staff member and totaled for each department. The author suggests that his exercise will give us some lessons in the methodology of the sociology of science, as it pertains to the problem of evaluating the quality of departments within a discipline. While it is questionable whether such a unitary evaluation can be done at all, more importantly the article raises two other questions: What are the possible purposes of such a task? Has Buss's article done an adequate job of doing the task regardless of purpose? With reference to the first question, it is virtually impossible to think of any legitimate use to which such finding could be put. On the question as to whether the Buss evaluations are well done, a few obvious points are listed. One of these is Buss's choice of the SSCI, which he admits does not include citations in some important psychological journals. In summary, the Buss paper includes a set of evaluations which serve no useful purpose. Furthermore, they are complete with numerous sources of known error, some of them systematic. The author has added to this all the problems of choice of summarizing values. The reviewer takes offense at his taxes being used for so shallow a purpose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of group psychotherapy training during predoctoral psychology internship.

Do psychologists receive sufficient training in group psychotherapy? Existing literature indicates that comprehensive training standards have not been universally or rigorously followed within the field of psychology. Results of this study indicate that, much like graduate school programs, predoctoral clinical psychology internships also do not routinely provide adequate group therapy training. This deficit in training undermines the proficiency and competency of psychologists who will increasingly be called upon to lead psychotherapy groups in clinical practice. Specific recommendations are provided to training directors who are interested in expanding their group therapy training opportunities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

There is no room for scientism in scientific psychology: A comment on Mahoney.

Although M. J. Mahoney's (see record 1990-03226-001) distinction between scientific psychology (SP) and radical behaviorism (RB) is accurate, Mahoney has underestimated the intolerance engendered by RB and the consequences of resulting scientistic views. It is suggested that if the American Psychological Association is to retain its role as a representative of SP, a distinction between scientific and scientistic activities must be maintained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observational and theoretical terms in psychology: A cognitive perspective on scientific language.

This article presents an empirical, psychological approach to the distinction between observational and theoretical terms, a persistent and unresolved issue in the study of science. Using relevant theory and evidence from cognitive psychology, we show that the observational–theoretical distinction parallels the concrete–abstract distinction in natural language, that both follow from the dual coding assumption of distinct verbal and nonverbal cognitive systems, and that natural language research supports this view. We report similar evidence for 72 psychological terms that were rated by psychologists on observability, consistency of meaning, and other relevant attributes. The ratings correlated highly with one another and also with imagery reaction times and reports of spontaneous imagery. The evidence challenges the claim that all scientific terms are equally inferential and reliable and is consistent with empiricist views of science that emphasize the distinct properties of concrete, observational terms and abstract, theoretical terms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A review of the neurobiological effects of psychotherapy for depression.

Although randomized, controlled clinical trials have shown that different forms of psychotherapy may be efficacious for depression, psychotherapy has not been widely reported to have effects upon the neurobiological concomitants of depression in similar ways as medication. Neuroendocrinal changes that occur during depression (principally hypercortisolaemia) produce structural and functional alterations to the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala, plus the connectivity between these regions of the brain. This article reviews the evidence to date regarding the neurobiological effects of psychotherapy for depression and suggests a hypothetical pathway linking the nurturing effects of the therapist–patient “bond” and restoration of neuroendocrinal “balance.” This pathway may provide a neurobiological causal link between psychotherapy and alleviation of depression in the same way as that which exists for pharmacological treatments, and argues for a model of depression that includes both biological and psychological effects of psychotherapy when considering treatment choice and application. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selected theoretical and philosophical aspects of counseling psychology: A personal view.

Counseling Psychologists have often reflected upon the special perspectives and philosophical aspects of their specialty. From the variance of our roots to the diversity of our current activities through the conflicts of contemporary psychology there is a certain stability of purpose and unity of belief about the crucial aspects of our area. Our view of human action sees persons as agents capable of managing and enhancing their inner selves, important commitments, interpersonal relationships and their world of work. This view doesn't prevail because we are segregated from or unaware of the biological determinism of Freudian thought or the environmental determinism of Skinner and other behaviorists. We have not chosen to ignore these traditions which are so much a part of psychology's history; rather, we seek in science and practice to know more about the multiplicity of influences that enter into the origins of human actions so that the exercise of agency and the possibilities for choice are enhanced. Our scientist-professional model allows us to test our theories in actual everyday situations, and return to our laboratories and classrooms with practical wisdom. This model also permits us to put theory and science at the disposal of those we serve. Whatever our future holds, at the present time we enjoy the best of two worlds as careful science and expert practice continue to inform our views of human action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)