The profile of HIV infection in women: a challenge to the profession

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has become a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among women and children in the United States. As advances are made in the area of diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection, strategies must be developed to support the psychosocial needs of women with HIV disease. The diagnosis of HIV infection in women and their children presents a unique array of complicated social, emotional and medical consequences. Care must be provided in a holistic manner with special emphasis on the needs of women within a systemic context.     

Functional behaviorism: A plan for unity in psychology.

Functional behaviorism is an evolutionary stimulus-response psychology that applies to all behavior from reflexes to personality. It treats psychological phenomena as compounds of 3 processes--cognition, affect and reaction tendency--which are governed by 3 fundamental operating principles: (a) Behavior is an expression of potentials activated by instigation; (b) behavior is under the simultaneous control of excitation and inhibition; and (c) behavior is a blend of adaptation to events the individual cannot control and coping when control is possible. This view provides an organization that brings unity to the science of psychology. It is an offering of peace to the warring factions in the field. It holds out the hope of creating coherent programs of education in the discipline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The experience of disability: A challenge for psychology.

Presents data on the handicapped population in the US and demonstrates how social psychological theories explain the experience of disability. It is contended that disability is associated both with race and income and is more prevalent among those with less than an 8th-grade education than among those with a college education. A disability compounds the effects of sex and race on economic status. Stereotyping and prejudicial attitudes (including self-images of the disabled) limit the opportunities for disabled people. It is suggested that in addition to biological differences, the attitudes and behavior of the nonhandicapped toward the handicapped person, the values of appearance and independence that underlie these attitudes, and the power of prejudice and discrimination must be examined. It is concluded that the existence of disabilities compels people to confront what it means to be human. New directions for psychological research and service in light of the changing situation of handicapped people in today's society are proposed. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The unity of psychology.

An analysis of contemporary psychology reveals the existence of three distinct subject matters: behavior, neurophysiological events, and phenomenal experience. To unify psychology requires reducing two of the subject-matter areas to the theoretical principles of the third. Whether one subject matter can be reduced to another (e.g., behavior to neurophysiology) depends upon the formalization of the two theories involving the different subject matters and the demonstration that one formulation can explain the other. Explanation can be examined within two different frameworks, epistemological and psychological. Epistemologically, explanation occurs when a phenomenon is deduced from a set of theoretical principles. Psychologically an event is explained when it can be intuitively comprehended; made sensible in terms of one's own phenomenal experience. A unified psychology does not, and may never, exist. Whether a unity can potentially be achieved depends on the acceptance of a common criterion of explanation. Without a common conception psychology will inevitably be split into separate and distinct disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology: The core discipline.

Because it deals with fundamental understanding of behavior, psychology is a core discipline for other social sciences concerned with human behavior. Its founders viewed psychology as integrating knowledge from many sources and disciplines. This diversity has posed problems in finding unifying themes and principles and has contributed to a discontinuity in psychology as a science and as a profession. As a core discipline, psychology contains scientific knowledge about human behavior and methods of applying that knowledge. There is a need for cooperation and integration between academic and applied psychology, with both serving to benefit society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The shaping of a profession: A personal view.

Describes key events in the author's 35-yr career in psychology that radicalized him and helped him to develop a stance as a strong advocate for professional psychology. Included are discussions of the encouragement of state associations to enact licensing and freedom-of-choice laws and of the creation of the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey—none of which could have occurred without political activity. The author's strong conviction is that for psychology to be an important voice in the mental health world, the professional must be organizationally and politically sophisticated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time-out grid: A guide to effective discipline.

Describes the Time-out Grid, a heuristic tool for analyzing and solving problems associated with implementing time-out in the classroom. Its conceptual foundation is based on research that has demonstrated the importance of relative reinforcing stimulus change in determining the effectiveness of time-out. The Grid illustrates behavioral outcomes associated with differing amounts of reinforcing stimulus change between the time-in and time-out environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Opinicon II: The state of the discipline review.

Informs that since the autumn of 1981, a growing group of psychologists have been carefully considering the current state of the discipline of psychology in Canada. The goal is an invited conference that would reflect on the major issues affecting psychology today and that would make recommendations to the Canadian Psychological Association and, indeed, to all Canadian psychology regarding the steps to be taken in the future to enhance the growth and development of psychology as a science and as a profession. Earlier state of the discipline reviews are briefly described and the terms of reference for the current project, Opinicon II, are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The most dangerous profession: A note on nonsampling error.

Nonsampling errors are subtle, and strategies for dealing with them are not particularly well known within psychology. This article provides a compelling example of an incorrect conclusion drawn from a nonrandom sample: H. C. Lombard's (1835) mortality data. This example is augmented by a second example (A. Wald, 1980) that shows how modeling the selection mechanism can correct for the bias introduced by nonsampling errors. These 2 examples are then connected to modern statistical methods that through the method of multiple imputation allow researchers to assess uncertainty in observational studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational productivity: A challenge for psychologists.

Asserts that declining productivity in the US has become widely accepted as a root cause of our national economic woes. As a group, psychologists are affected by the decline due to the reduction and shifting of resources away from the health/human services fields. Reversing this decline requires actions at both national policy and organizational levels. The present article addresses the challenge that efforts to improve organizational productivity offers to psychologists. The challenge involves clarifying what productivity means at the organizational level and recognizing that psychologists must function as part of an interdisciplinary team. The contributions of skilled psychologists who are interested in working with specialists from other fields are discussed in the context of a simple productivity management process model. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The rural psychologist as generalist: A challenge for professional identity.

Discusses how the psychologist who practices in a rural mental health facility performs many tasks identical to those done by other mental health professionals. While a nonpluralistic and financially constrained mental health system is best served by flexible professionals with a wide range of skills, psychologists in such a setting must utilize their unique training to establish their identity among the service providers. The unique identity of the psychologist is found in the heritage, perspective, and methodology of psychology and not just in clinical activity. Psychologists should begin to develop their methodology by using the larger university context in which they were trained and thereby establish themselves also as researchers and community psychology practitioners. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A forecast of the future for the mental health profession.

Used Delphic polling to predict 5 variables relating to the future of the mental health profession: quality of graduate training; certification, licensure, and accreditation practices; 3rd-party reimbursement to practitioners at various training levels; employment prospects; and future trends. Results obtained from 600 psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health administrators, counselors, and psychiatric nurses and social workers indicate a continued need for providers with master's degrees and doctorates, 3rd-party reimbursements of certified providers at all levels, increased quality and specialization of graduate training, and the continued popularity of academic training programs. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The challenge of environmental psychology: A proposal for a new functionalism.

Argues that the hardship conditions under which man evolved put a high premium on rapid and efficient information handling. Currently maladaptive behavior with respect to overpopulation and environmental decline may be in part the result of an inadequate conception of what the future holds. The missing knowledge is unlikely to be verbal. Substitutes for experience that enhance imagery of alternative futures may be pivotal. A few of the multitude of researchable topics that arise in this context are presented. It is concluded that a broad functional psychology could find much to learn, study, and contribute in the environmental area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The shifting gender composition of psychology: Trends and implications for the discipline.

Psychology, along with the majority of professions and scientific disciplines, has undergone dramatic shifts in gender composition over the past two decades. These changes have prompted concern that this increased participation by women may lead to erosion in the status of these occupations. This article describes the results of a case study of psychology conducted by a subcommittee of the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Task Force on the Changing Gender Composition of Psychology to examine the discipline's changing gender composition and the factors related to these shifts. Societal and disciplinary trends are examined, along with data on the patterns of men's and women's involvement in the educational pipeline and workplace. The results provide little support for the concern over the increasing representation of women and its impact on the prestige of the discipline. Rather, they suggest that changes in the nature and status of psychology per se may be at least partly responsible for the changes in male and female participation and that the nature, magnitude, and causes of these disciplinary changes require further examination. Specific recommendations for the APA prepared by another subcommittee of the Task Force are also presented in the Appendix. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Parenting Scale: A measure of dysfunctional parenting in discipline situations.

Designed a rating scale to measure dysfunctional discipline practices in parents of young children. Three stable factors of dysfunctional discipline style were identified: (1) Laxness, (2) Overreactivity, and (3) Verbosity. The Parenting Scale exhibited adequate internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Mothers of clinic children reported more dysfunctional parenting than did mothers of nonclinic children. Parenting Scale scores were related to maternal ratings of child behavior and marital discord. Most important, Parenting Scale scores correlated significantly with observational measures of dysfunctional discipline and child misbehavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuing education: A new challenge for psychology.

Notes that pressures are mounting from within and from outside psychology for the demonstration of continued professional competence. The need for systematically available continuing education opportunities for both the practicing professional and the teacher-scientist is great. It is suggested that some services can be provided centrally by the American Psychological Association which will facilitate the development of a continuing education network for all psychologists. The following services are proposed: consultation on the development of programs, a resource center, a registration service, publication of a calendar, and a self-assessment examination system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A teacher inservice model for problem-solving in classroom discipline: Suggestions for the school psychologist.

Suggests that school psychologists may find themselves faced with the task of conducting teacher inservice workshops on the subject of classroom discipline and discusses the shortcomings of various approaches to teacher training in classroom discipline. Four key principles of a teacher training model are presented for school psychologists' use. The principles focus on the concept of "discipline subsystems" (i.e., instruction, behavior modification, group management/dynamics, and psychodynamic/human relationships). The 4 discipline subsystems are both interrelated and interdependent, such that the functional characteristics of any one subsystem may influence the functional characteristics of other subsystems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)