Drops in Degrees: Comment.

Comments on a table in an article by Lester Recktenwald (see record 2005-07923-012). The author of this comment notes that the data in the table citing the drop in undergraduate degrees from 1950 to 1954 should be interpreted not in an absolute sense, but in the context of the total number of degrees granted in the various years. The author feels this is especially important for these data since the total number of undergraduate degrees granted has declined markedly since 1950. The small number of master's and PhD's in psychology is also mentioned, and the author concludes that the increasing demand for PhD's indicates that every encouragement could be given to qualified students to continue on to the PhD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduate Training of Some Psychologists.

The author points out some problems, as he sees them, in undergraduate psychology training. He suggests urging some selected undergraduate students, who express an interest in psychology, to develop skills and understanding in some other area of science during their college years. In this scheme, and along the minimal lines for training in psychology states that he has included a course in general, experimental, psychological statistics, and perhaps one other such as tests and measurements. Among the major areas he has recommended are mathematics, physics, and zoology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

More on undergraduate degrees.

Since the publication of figures taken from the Statistical Abstract of the United States in the American Psychologist (1957, 12, 229-230), the writer received a number of requests for reprints which were not available. In order to satisfy these inquiries and to make the data more helpful, he has extended the table, which originally included only the years 1949-54, up to and including 1958. In the original Comment, the writer speculated on the reasons why the number of undergraduate degrees in psychology had dropped from 1950 to 1954. To the advocates of undergraduate specialization in psychology, it will be reassuring to note that the bachelor or first level degree, in point of numbers of men and women receiving it, has been on the rise ever since 1955 when it reached its lowest point. The number of master or second level degree recipients reached its lowest point in 1956 and has also risen since then but has not approached the peak year of 1951. The number of doctorates awarded since 1952 has remained more constant, especially since 1952, than the numbers receiving the first and second level degrees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduate Psychology Curriculum.

Acting upon recommendations of the study group composed of Wolfle, Gofer et al. and set forth in their report, "Improving Undergraduate Instruction in Psychology," Hollins College instituted a new psychology curriculum at the beginning of the 1953-54 session. The experiment is now in the second year and some comments from the purely experiential point of view seem indicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduate Psychology Majors.

Discusses the numbers and percentages of students who graduated with a major in psychology from Washington Square College between 1939 and 1960. The author states that if these trends are typical of what is happening in other colleges, then it can be expected that graduate departments of psychology will continue to have ample sources of recruitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minor Fields of Undergraduate Majors in Psychology.

Undergraduate majors in psychology are admonished to select strong supporting minors such as biology or mathematics. Journal articles remark about the desirability of such supporting minors, and association meetings schedule programs to consider the relative merits of various minor fields. But, at least since 1948, no study has been reported to indicate which subject areas are actually selected for minors. It is the concern of the present report of show the distribution of these minors as reported in the official graduation records in a state university over a 15-year period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduate training for psychologists.

"The chairmen of the psychology departments of the 167 institutions listed in the December 1956 issue of the American Psychologist as offering graduate work in psychology were surveyed as to their opinions regarding an ideal undergraduate curriculum for prospective graduate students. One hundred and forty-nine (89%) of the questionnaires were returned… . A large majority of the chairmen (85%) agreed that the best undergraduate major would be psychology." Biological science and mathematics were listed most frequently as the best minor. Tables are presented of the preferred undergraduate nonpsychology courses for graduate training applicants and preferred undergraduate psychology courses for graduate training applicants. The preferred nonpsychology courses listed by at least 70% of all the chairmen were algebra, anthropology, physics, physiology, and sociology. Preferred psychology courses were beginning statistics and experimental psychology (indicated by 96% and 95% of the chairmen, respectively). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduate Psychology: An Extreme View.

The author opines that Buxton's "Issues in Undergraduate Education in Psychology" (American Psychologist, 1956, 11, 84-95; see record 1957-02112-001) has very properly raised a number of provocative questions that need careful and considered attention. He feels compelled to offer some clarification on whether psychological teaching should be directed at "the whole man" or primarily at intellectual aspects of the student's development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Education for research in psychology.

A report of a seminar held at Estes Park, Colorado, July 28-August 22, 1958, sponsored by the Education and Training Board of the American Psychological Association. The purpose of the seminar was "to provide information which would aid institutions giving graduate degrees in psychology in examining and improving their programs for training research men." Major sections are: (a) How Research Gets Done; (b) Formal Aspects of Graduate Training (Statistics, Other Tool Subjects, Breadth of Scholarship, Role of Theory in Research, Standardization), (c) Development of the Individual (Selection, Motivation, Apprenticeship); (d) Summing Up. Research is "learned by doing and taught mainly by contagion. Research must first be going on if there is to be research training… . Apprenticeship is, we believe, the most important part of education for research in psychology; the professor who hires a graduate student as a research assistant takes on the primary teaching responsibility for that student, a responsibility which both he and his department must recognize." Opposition is expressed to standardizing training programs for research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On recruiting graduate students.

"In the fall of 1955, the Committee on Undergraduate Education conducted a questionnaire survey of American colleges regarding their undergraduate psychology programs." About ? of the country's 4 year liberal arts colleges cooperated. 73% of responding institutions offer a major in psychology. About 75% of the colleges offering majors have 1 term courses in introductory psychology, the other 25% have 2 terms 10 colleges require less than 20 semester hours work for the major in psychology, 12 require 35 semester hours or more. Data are also presented in answer to the following questions: (a) How many students enter graduate school each year? (b) What proportion of seniors and senior majors continue into graduate study? (c) Are small colleges better at producing graduate students? (d) Did the survey identify any single variable associated with rate of producing graduate students? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment: Methodology.

Letter comments on a humorous experience regarding the training of a cricket for an undergraduate educational psychology course. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infighting in Psychology: An In-House Proposal.

Currently, many psychologists are experiencing an "embarrassing moment." As a result of licensing, psychologists with master's degrees cannot achieve full guild status (except for "grandfathering") and have been given titles such as "assistant." What is needed is some resolution of the PhD-MA schism, coupled with licensing legislation that delineates what psychologists can do that sister professions are ill equipped to provide and are unlikely to protest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in undergraduate education in psychology.

A number of specific questions are raised and discussed with regard to the role of psychology in the undergraduate college "contributing to the development of the well-rounded individual." Among those discussed are: Who is responsible for planning the over-all undergraduate program in psychology? Who is responsible for the objectives of a single course in the psychology program? Should courses be student centered or content-centered? Questions relating to the role of psychological theory, the stress on special psychological vocabulary, the desirability of placing psychological concepts in an historical perspective in an undergraduate curriculum are considered, as are several other issues regarding recruitment for graduate training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in the education and training of women in Canadian psychology.

The high attrition rate of female students in graduate programmes in psychology is documented. Some of the literature (largely American) on the problems of female students is explored for possible reasons for this high rate. The problem areas identified are: admissions practices, financial support, inflexibility of graduate programmes, faculty attitudes toward graduate students, scarcity of female role models, and psychology as a "masculine" discipline. Recommendations for action by the Canadian Psychological Association are made in each of the problem areas with a special plea for the inclusion, in both graduate and undergraduate psychology programmes, of courses on the female experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The crisis in clinical psychology training.

"The directors of university clinical-psychology training programs and state-level psychologists of the 10 northeastern states met in Princeton in June 1962 to consider joint responsibilities, focusing particular attention on the nature of internships. Analysis of fact sheets, completed by both university and state participants prior to the meeting, indicated an acute shortage of doctoral clinical-psychology candidates and of qualified students accepting internships." Suggestions of participants "included (a) expansion of present doctoral training programs, (b) additional training programs including retooling of current masters' programs, (c) and experimental development of professional schools." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internships Are Taxing.

The author discusses the issue of whether an internship is necessary for degrees to practice clinical psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Popular literature in the undergraduate social psychology course.

In the social psychology course at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, in addition to using a standard text plus a book of readings, and requiring a technical term report and a class research project, students are required to read three novels (George Orwell's 1984, Thomas Heggen's Mr. Roberts, and Philip Wylie's The Disappearance). Four criteria for the selection of these are specified. These books provided much opportunity for discussing a wide range of social phenomena and "… helped tie together many aspects of the course material." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Degrees, Doctors, and Psychologists.

While Fields' letter in the December 1955 American Psychologist is informative and significant, it makes some errors which should be corrected, and further fails to touch on a number of pertinent problems. It is unfortunate that the public, as well as official agencies such as the House Committee on the Armed Services, misapply the title "Doctor" making it, as would appear, identical with the MD. The title "Doctor" has historic academic significance stemming from middle English, after the Latin doctorem, a teacher or instructor who inculcates learning, opinions or principles (Onions, C. T. Oxford Universal English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1937). Thus "Doctor" is, and has been, a degree applied to sundry branches of academic learning, presumably a certificate of the highest proficiency in a subject. The title "physician," contrary to the statement of Dr. Fields, is not for the exclusive use of the doctor of medicine, either historically or contemporaneously. From the legal standpoint, or the standpoint of training, a number of people in the healing arts aside from the doctor of medicine are entitled to the use of the title "physician." Certainly the psychologist must be made aware of the status of other professional people in the healing arts aside from the doctor of medicine. Whether their philosophical position is acceptable to him or not, many of these practitioners are formally trained and hold legal rights to practice. In terms of ethical problems, incidents may arise of an unpleasant interprofessional nature due to the psychologist's ignorance of the training and legal status of other healing professions: such an incident was reported within the past two years, in which a chiropractor having appropriate undergraduate work was barred from a graduate course in psychology on the basis of his chiropractic affiliation. A lack of understanding of the functions and qualifications of other professional groups is unfortunate in terms of interprofessional relations, and the ultimate status of psychology itself in its therapeutic aspect. Probably the big problem is recognition of the new professional role which psychology is assuming, a role which demands standardization of curriculum and perhaps the development of a doctorate in medical psychology, as suggested by L. S. Kubie (1954). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of training in rehabilitation psychology practice in the United States and Canada: 2007.

Objective: Examine the structures, processes, and outcomes of training for rehabilitation psychology practice in the United States and Canada during 2007. Methods: Public data sources provided 947 potential training sites and programs, with 635 meeting selection criteria, from which 328 unique sites were identified. Of these, 117 sites (36%) reported providing training in rehabilitation psychology practice, and were sent a survey. Eighty percent (80%) returned the survey (n = 94). Results: There were nearly equal numbers of intern and resident training sites. Of the resident training sites, 46% had a complete rehabilitation focus, and 41% had faculty with American Board of Rehabilitation Psychology (ABRP) certification. Resident training sites ranged from 73% to 100% in meeting the Patterson and Hanson (1995) training guidelines, and ranged from 7% to 100% in formally teaching the current ABRP required competencies. Discussion: Many rehabilitation patients receive psychological services from practitioners whose professional emphasis is not in rehabilitation psychology, and many trainees involved with rehabilitation populations do not receive comprehensive training in rehabilitation psychology. There is a need for increased structure in and funding of training programs for rehabilitation psychology practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postgraduate occupations of psychology major students.

During the last ten or fifteen years we have seen an increase in enrollment in undergraduate psychology courses that is far out of proportion to the general increase in overall university attendance. Psychology departments are overwhelmed with undergraduate students, and the numbers continue to increase each year. Since we are allocating so much of our time, energy, and resources to undergraduate teaching, it is important to determine what these students are being educated for. This note reports the results of an inquiry into the postgraduate occupations of the members of the first three graduating classes of the psychology major programme at McGill University. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)