Getting your first job: A view from the bottom.

Discusses the reality of the employment process in psychology, i.e., patronage practices which seek "to preserve the definition of psychology as a white, middle-class research effort whose place is within the university and whose purpose is to maintain the political, social, and scientific status quo." Temporary suggestions for helping new PhDs find positions, and permanent plans for updating the current job-marketing procedure via a computerized job placement system are included. A draft system on the university level (similar to that used in American football) is also suggested as a means for ending the problem of academic elitism in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The emerging field of the sociology of psychological knowledge.

Considers the social context in which professional academicians practice psychology. The ties of psychological knowledge to the infrastructure of society are noted, and comparisons with the sociology of knowledge are made. The underlying social biases of 5 areas within psychology (differential, humanistic, developmental, behavioristic, and social) are reviewed. Recent articles from the American Psychologist are sampled to indicate the growing awareness by the profession of the social base of its activities. (86 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Humanistic psychology and the humane but tough-minded psychologist.

An analysis of definitions of humanistic psychology that appeared in the original documents establishing the Association for Humanistic Psychology, in books about humanistic psychology, and in editorial policies of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology showed little agreement about the explicit meaning of the phrase, which typically is used in a vague manner. It is argued (a) that a liberal arts background may be useful for psychologists, and in that sense a humanistic perspective is defensible; (b) that "humanistic" practices such as "growth experiences," the activities promulgated by the human encounter movement, "consciousness-raising workshops," and "humanistic psychotherapies" have not been demonstrated to be effective and must be viewed with great caution; and (c) that there is little point in substituting "humanistic" psychology for "wholistic," "gestalt," "systemic," or "organismic" psychology. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transcending the angel beast: Viktor Frankl and humanistic psychology.

In this article the author describes the relationship of Viktor Frankl, the famous Holocaust survivor and founder of logotherapy, with the Big 3 (Rollo May, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow) of the American humanistic psychology movement. From the perspective of his quasi-religious meaning-centered logotherapy, Frankl criticized the humanistic psychology movement for overlooking the transcendent nature of human experience. The author argues that the source of these criticisms stems from Frankl's traumatic Holocaust experience that made him unable to accept an immanent meaning to human existence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology, experimental psychology and the social psychology of the experiment.

Discusses the recent growth of experimental social psychology which has involved wholesale adoption of classical methodology as conceived by experimental psychology. Paradoxically, research and writings on the "social psychology of the experiment" raise serious questions about certain assumptions implicit in classical methodology, i.e., those concerning the nature of the subject matter and the relationship between E and S. The views of R. Rosenthal, M. T. Orne, and others are discussed in this context and general implications considered in the light of the humanistic movement in American psychology. The general conclusion is that the values and criteria for all experimentation in psychology may be destined to undergo a radical reorientation. (French summary) (32 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is psychology relevant to new priorities?

Discusses ways in which psychology participates in establishing and in implementing new social priorities through theory, methods, applied research, and professional skills. The social import of the "metapsychological" assumptions about human nature purveyed by psychologists is stressed. The assumptions of Skinnerian behaviorism and of "humanistic psychology" are both challenged in terms of their scientific base and social consequences. A humanized scientific psychology is advocated. (37 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Humanistic" Psychologists.

Having successfully initiated the petition for the establishment of the Division of Humanistic Psychology within APA, I was intrigued by Michael Wertheimer's (see record 1979-22531-001) conclusion that the use of the label humanistic to differentiate this type of psychology from all the rest is unnecessary-particularly since I have arrived at a similar conclusion myself. Outside the APA, many of those who are currently calling themselves "humanistic psychologists" are not really psychologists at all; and the movement seems to be primarily made up of hucksters, charlatans, and perennial therapy shoppers eager to sample the latest far-out techniques--along with a few diehard members of the counterculture left over from the 1960s who are still trying to learn how to be bigger and better hippies. Within APA itself, what is frequently perceived as ideological discrimination is primarily the result of a lack of sufficient intellectual rigor. This in turn has led to the development of a cultic, "us-versus-them" attitude that tends to confuse eccentricity with creativity and to substitute in-group loyalty for the pursuit of excellence. Whatever the situation may have been in the past, humanistic psychology, like Gestalt psychology, may certainly be included in the mainstream of psychological thought today. Henceforth, I shall be happy to think of myself as merely a psychologist, without any identifying ideological label. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology in flux: The academic-professional bipolarity.

The "main fission in psychology is that between academic psychology and professional psychology." Clinical, industrial, and social psychology, among other applied fields, have expanded dramatically since World War II. Experimental psychology itself is now being professionalized. Serious problems stem from the fact that most graduate curricula are oriented to training "pure scientists" as scholars while most psychology graduates will "wind up in professional work outside universities and colleges." One solution is "to set up a school forthrightly embracing both academic and professional graduate training." There would be an "academic department" and a separate "professional department." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Up close and personal: An inside look at university training programs in school psychology.

I am pleased to have the opportunity as Guest Associate Editor to build on the outstanding special feature of Professional School Psychology, "Up Close and Personal: An Inside Look at University Training Programs in School Psychology" initiated by Richard A. Weinberg (1986). By adding the school psychology program of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to the list of exemplary university training programs previously featured in the journal, we hope to maintain the established goal "to take a focused look at various programs through the eyes of the educators who have guided their direction" (Weinberg, 1986, p. 61). The feature's focus on American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited school psychology programs in a historical context provides a fascinating perspective on the intellectual history of programs and individual efforts to shape their academic and professional standards. Perhaps as we continue to feature school psychology programs, the focus on the future directions of each program will reveal the innovative changes emerging from the crucial scientific and practical issues in which professional psychology is currently engulfed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neoscholastic Psychology Revisited.

Beginning around 1879, a Neoscholastic psychology developed, an experimental psychology with a soul. Opposed to materialism, it sought to renew Scholastic philosophy by incorporating the findings of the natural sciences. Neoscholastic psychology is an important chapter in the history of the relationships between science and religion in the 20th century. Neoscholastic psychology was both experimental and philosophical. This article presents the main accomplishments of North American Neoscholastic psychology in academic and applied areas. Neoscholastic psychologists championed scientific psychology while insisting on a better conception of human nature. Philosophical critiques led to a decline of Neoscholasticism; after the 1960s it was no longer official Catholic philosophy. Neoscholasticism gave psychologists concerned with philosophical questions impetus to turn to phenomenology, existentialism, and humanistic psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and the moral imperative.

Examines the moral obligations of psychology. An inquiry into the main priorities of academic and professional psychology suggests that contributions to human welfare, its preeminent moral obligation, comes in third after guild issues and professional self-interest, and the pursuit of knowledge. In an effort to reassign moral philosophy a place of prominence and to broaden the ethical discourse of psychology, the authors use the term "moral imperative" (MI). The promotion of the MI entails the exploration of 3 fundamental questions. These concern the extent that the present social order promotes human welfare for everyone, the extent that psychology supports or challenges the present social order, and the contributions that psychology can make to the advent of the "good" society. The MI advances 4 human agency values: self-determination, distributive justice, collaborative and democratic participation, and relationality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Perceived parental social support and academic achievement: An attachment perspective": Correction to Cutrona et al.

Reports an error in "Perceived parental social support and academic achievement: An attachment theory perspective" by Carolyn E. Cutrona, Valerie Cole, Nicholas Colangelo, Susan G. Assouline and Daniel W. Russell (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1994[Feb], Vol 66[2], 369-378). This article, which appeared in the Personality and Individual Differences section, was accepted for publication by Guest Editor Irwin Sarason. We wish to thank Professor Sarason for his help and to apologize for our oversight in not acknowledging this contribution. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1994-31441-001.) Tested the extent to which parental social support predicted college GPA among undergraduates. A sample of 418 undergraduates completed the Social Provisions Scale--Parent Form (C. E. Cutrona; see record 1990-01422-001) and measures of family conflict and achievement orientation. American College Testing (ACT) Assessment Program college entrance exam scores (American College Testing Program, 1986) and GPA were obtained from the university registrar. Parental social support, especially reassurance of worth, predicted college GPA when controlling for academic aptitude (ACT scores), family achievement orientation, and family conflict. Support from parents, but not from friends or romantic partners, significantly predicted GPA. Results are interpreted in the context of adult attachment theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The road not taken: A false start for cognitive psychology.

"Psychology and History" was H. Münsterberg's presidential address at the 1898 American Psychological Association conference (see also PA, Vol 81:27847). After a short academic career in Germany, Münsterberg had accepted a chair at Harvard University. In his address, he presented to his American colleagues his conception of psychology as unitary science of the individual human mind. However, this conception that endeavored to import idealistic philosophy from Germany was skeptically received in America where pragmatism prevailed. Münsterberg adapted to his new environment. During the following decade, he incorporated into his theory what he had objected to before: purposive, social, and applied psychology. Yet, Münsterberg's initial conception was a sophisticated design for psychology as a cognitive science. In retrospect, it can be evaluated as a road taken much later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Humanistic–existential psychotherapy competencies and the supervisory process.

There has been an increasing focus in recent years on articulating foundational and functional competencies for practice in professional psychology and how a competency-based approach might inform psychology training. With the aim of contributing to the dialogue in this area, the discussion herein explores psychotherapy competencies through the lens of a humanistic–existential perspective and describes implications for psychotherapy training and supervision. Specifically, competencies pertaining to facilitating the client’s experiential awareness and use of the psychotherapy relationship to engender client change are described. Next, the foundational and functional competencies within professional psychology that are particularly salient to a humanistic–existential psychotherapy framework are discussed. Finally, the ways in which a humanistic–existential supervision framework contributes to the development of psychotherapy competencies in trainees is considered. A brief vignette is presented to illustrate the supervision process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapeutics and the problematic origins of clinical psychology in America.

The problematic place of psychotherapy within the larger history of scientific psychology is reviewed, especially in the absence of any definitive history of clinical psychology yet written. Although standard histories of psychology imply that psychotherapy was somehow derived from the tradition of German laboratory science, modern historiography reveals a dramatically different story. Personality, abnormal, social, and clinical psychology have their roots in an international psychotherapeutic alliance related more to French neurophysiology, and this alliance flourished for several decades before psychoanalysis. Reconstruction of the American contribution to this alliance, the so-called Boston school of abnormal psychology, suggests an era of medical psychology in advance of today. Note is also made of the possible misattribution of Lightner Witmer as the father of clinical psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desegration: A psychological analysis.

The "significance of the Supreme Court's decision [against public school segregation] from the stand-point of a science of psychology is that it provides a rare opportunity to acquire more of the kind of knowledge we need in order to make better interpretations of such matters than is now possible." To be most useful, social psychology must develop a framework for viewing the present scene which will "go beyond explanations of specific phenomena, and provide a schema within which a range of events can be organized and understood." Major topics considered are: Attitude Changes Following Intergroup Contact. Public Position-Taking on Consequential Issues. Will the Needed Research be Done? It is felt that "we understand the events of this dramatic period in American history well enough to be able to conceive a fruitful research attack upon their meaning for social relations in general." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Does the model matter? The relationship between science-practice emphasis in clinical psychology programs and the internship match": Correction to Neimeyer, Rice, and Keilin (2007).

Reports an error in "Does the model matter? The relationship between science-practice emphasis in clinical psychology programs and the internship match" by Greg J. Neimeyer, Kenneth G. Rice and W. Gregory Keilin (Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 2007[Aug], Vol 1[3], 153-162). The biography for the third author was incorrect. It should read as follows: GREGORY KEILIN is an Assistant Director at the Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Chair of APPIC. He received his doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Colorado State University. His current research interests include supply and demand issues in professional psychology. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2007-12635-001.) Academic training programs in clinical psychology vary in the emphasis that they place on science and practice, and this paper examines whether these differential emphases are linked to distinctive internship outcomes. In a study of 2,130 internship applicants from clinical psychology programs, differences were noted among practice-oriented programs, balanced science-practice programs, and science-oriented programs. Against a backdrop of some similarities, a differential emphasis on science and practice within academic training programs was related to significantly different internship match rates, as well as to successful matching in qualitatively different internship settings. Results provided qualified support for future work that might further address the relationship between academic training programs and outcomes in the field of clinical psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A textbook of social psychology.

Reviews the book, A textbook of social psychology (5th ed.) by J. E. Alcock, D. W. Carment, and S. W. Sadava (2001). The authors have produced here, for the most part, an example of the social psychology textbook that has dominated the North American academic landscape for more than a generation, which is a social psychology largely under the influence of naive empiricism, generally nonhistorical and nonideological in its approach, and otherwise (and amazingly) undisturbed by over 30 years of debate on the crisis in social psychology or more recent postmodernist and critical approaches based on history, language and discourse, politics, feminism, social/historical constructionism, and notions of community. Indeed, what is most striking about the book is what is missing in it. There is no serious discussion of feminist psychology or feminism. Nor is there any mention of postmodernist influences, critical psychology, symbolic interactionism, community psychology, the analysis of discourse, intersubjectivity, Vygotsky's socio-cultural-historical approach, and so on. But this omission says more about the book's adherence to the mainstream than about its neglect of Canadian psychology; there can be no doubt that much of Canadian psychology is a direct importation from the American mainstream. Alcock, Carment, and Sadava give us a standard North American textbook in social psychology with a Canadian flavour. It provides significant content reflecting what many Canadian social psychologists research, and it offers Canadian examples throughout to illuminate its formal content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The legacy of Erich Fromm.

Reviews the book, The legacy of Erich Fromm by Daniel Burston (see record 1991-97594-000). In his effort to breathe new life into Fromm's legacy, Burston's employs a critical, developmental perspective, clearly showing both the continuities and the anomalies in Fromm's texts, research, and clinical practice. Writing in a highly readable, lucid style, accented with metaphorical expressions, Burston initially provides some biographical context, discusses Fromm's ambivalent involvement with the Freudian movement, and analyzes Fromm's many original contributions and relation to psychoanalysis, critical theory, existential and humanistic psychology, and social psychology. Throughout Burston's treatment of Fromm, he maintains a balanced yet affectionate perspective, elucidating not only Fromm's strengths but also his contradictions and weaknesses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)