Introduction to the special section on assessing personality characteristics in clinical settings.

Personality assessment in clinical settings is an important and often difficult undertaking, requiring the collection and integration of extensive personal history, personality, and symptomatic information. Clinicians are frequently faced with making important decisions on the basis of limited information. New conceptualizations and new techniques for describing personality and behavior are welcome additions to the clinician's assessment battery, and if productive, are eagerly sought to enhance clinical assessment. The goals of this special section are threefold: First, in their contribution, Costa and McCrae (1991a) explore the possibility that the NEO can provide new and different information that practitioners would find valuable in depicting or describing clients in the clinical assessment context. Second, the article by Ben-Porath and Waller (1991a) provides insight into the criteria by which "normal-range" assessment instruments might be evaluated. They examine the NEO on the basis of these criteria. Third, we hope that the Costa/McCrae (1992a, 1992b) and Ben-Porath/Waller (1992a, 1992b) discussion will serve as a productive interchange on the potential utility of this assessment approach for clinical assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to special section: Single-case research in psychotherapy.

As a method of inquiry, single-case research has been relegated conventionally to the role of discovery or hypothesis generation. New developments in the methodology of intensive single-case designs has extended its applicability to the testing of clinical theoretical constructs and even the identification of causal relations. A series of articles illustrates newer developments in single-case research and its use in addressing a wide range of clinical and research questions. It has often been noted that psychotherapy research has had little influence on clinical practice. Single-case designs are more closely linked to traditional means of clinical inquiry, teaching, and learning than are large-sample studies, and they are likely to have more immediate relevance for how intervention is conducted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section.

Higher education will play an increasingly prominent role in determining a nation's competitiveness in the world marketplace. Just as raw resources were once considered as critical factors for survival in the 20th century, intellectual capacity and technological innovation will provide key ingredients for success in the 21st century. Instruction will make a major contribution to these developments. This article introduces the Special Section on Instruction in Higher Education, a collection of articles addressing issues of concern from the evaluation of teaching to the remediation of student failures. It provides a brief review of the studies and offers a critical analysis of key issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on measuring cognitive products in research and practice.

This article introduces a special section of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology titled "Measuring Cognitive Products in Research and Practice." The practice of cognitive behavior therapies—and research on their effectiveness and the validity of the models of psychopathology and therapy associated with these treatments—requires valid assessment of cognition. Cognitive variables can be considered at several levels; the main focus of the articles in this special section is on techniques suited to measurement of cognitive products, thoughts, and images of which people are conscious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methodological advances in family psychology research: Introduction to the special section.

This article introduces a special section in the Journal of Family Psychology on methodological advances in family psychology research. The need for innovative methodologies to capture the richness and complexity of family relationships and to advance the field is discussed. Articles that address the application of mathematical modeling of couple interactions, methods for analyzing sequential observational data, the application of multivariate analysis of variance and confirmatory factor analysis, the application of hierarchical linear modeling, and the use of experimental methods for the study of family process are included in the special section. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section: Structural equation modeling in clinical research.

Clinical research hypotheses are becoming increasingly more complex and specific. As a result, clinical research studies often include multiple independent, intervening, and dependent variables in a single study. Nevertheless, a sampling of studies from 3 decades of research published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology reveals that the statistical models adopted by clinical researchers have failed to keep pace with the increasing complexity and specificity of hypotheses and research designs. This article introduces a special section on structural equation modeling, a statistical model well suited for complex and specific hypothesis tests in clinical research studies that include many variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on normative assessment.

This article introduces the special section on normative assessment. This special section has three main objectives. First, we provide guidelines and criteria for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments. Second, cross-cultural normative assessment is examined. In this context, translation issues influencing norming and test interpretation are highlighted. Our third and final objective is to provide a means of judging appropriate gender-based norms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on personality development.

For years the author has been struck by the oddity of having two separate fields that study personality--one in children and one in adults--with relatively little contact between the two. Those who study adult personality rarely refer to the child disposition literature, for example, and those who study childhood temperament infrequently describe how it unfolds into adult personality. Admittedly, part of the problem is that data that shed a bright light on the transition from childhood to adult personality have been hard to obtain and are scarce. Nonetheless, it is crucial to both developmental psychology and personality psychology for researchers to study transitions and continuities in personality throughout the life course. It is to this end that this special section was created. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on seeking new methods in mental health services research.

Mental health services research aims ultimately to improve the quality, impact, and cost-effectiveness of services. Experience during the past decade suggests that the goals and study conditions of mental health services research require special methods. A special section is described that presents 7 articles that give a flavor of the issues addressed and some of the methods that characterize this emerging research area. Although the series cannot explicate the full breadth or all the nuances of these methods, the authors' goal is to entice colleagues to join them in developing methods for addressing services research questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The culture of science and the ethics of alcohol administration in research.

The failure of ethicists to develop an absolute ethical code has led to the consideration of ethics in particular contexts. In the alcohol field, such consideration has resulted in considerable controversy, because this field has been influenced by parallel cultural contexts: a scientific research culture and a layman's spiritual culture (represented by Alcoholics Anonymous). Both cultures can inform ethical decision, but for scientific decisions to be made the influence of these cultures must be disentangled. This article reviews issues pertaining to this disentangling in connection with the use of alcohol administration in research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on recruiting and retaining minorities in psychotherapy research

This article introduces a special section devoted to the issue of recruiting and retaining ethnic minorities in psychotherapy research. Although minorities make up approximately 27% of the population of the United States (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1994), the major psychotherapy studies conducted to date have been based almost exclusively on White populations. In March 1994, however, a new policy of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandated that women and members of ethnic minority groups be included in all NIH-funded projects involving human participants, unless a clear and compelling rationale justifies their exclusion. Knowledge about effective and culturally sensitive means of contacting, recruiting, and retaining minorities is an important resource for researchers who now wish to conduct NIH-funded studies. In the series of articles constituting this special section, strategies and advice are provided for researchers who want to recruit and retain minorities in psychotherapy research.     

New approaches to missing data in psychological research: Introduction to the special section.

Traditional approaches to missing data (e.g., listwise deletion) can lead to less than optimal results in terms of bias, statistical power, or both. This article introduces the 3 articles in the special section of Psychological Methods, which consider multiple imputation and maximum-likelihood methods, new approaches to missing data that can often yield improved results. Computer software is now available to implement these new methods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section: Foreword.

For many years, researchers and practitioners have devoted much of their time and resources to studies of criminals, on treatment and rehabilitation of criminals, and on psychology and the law, with particular focus on criminals and the criminal justice system. It is only very recently that the victims of crime and violence have begun to command the attention and study so long neglected. Where can psychology make its most significant contribution? It is to this question that this special issue is essentially addressed. Psychology can perhaps make its greatest contribution to the victims of crime and violence. The following articles demonstrate this initiative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An approach to psychotherapy change process research: Introduction to the special section.

This special section has a dual focus. One is on psychotherapy change research. The other is to explicate an approach to develop a program of research that builds on 2 aspects of scientific discovery: decomposition of observed phenomena and localization of specific elements that may combine to produce a complex whole. These aspects are considered within an ordered framework of 8 steps in the development and testing of a model, moving from discovery to model construction, validation, and prediction of complex outcomes. Studies on psychotherapy change processes were selected, after a masked review, to represent different levels in developing a program of research. Although it is argued that the early steps of decomposition and localization are important when developing a program of research, current editorial practices in first-tier journals, including the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, typically consider this type of study to be too preliminary for a scientific archival journal. Should this practice be revisited? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy outcome and quality improvement: Introduction to the special section on patient-focused research.

This article introduces the special section of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology on patient-focused research for improving the outcome of psychological therapies. After a discussion of the context, promise, and problems associated with this research domain, an overview of the contributions is offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on motivation and efficacy.

This article summarizes the research articles in this special section on motivation and efficacy. These articles stress the idea that motivation and efficacy are interacting mechanisms in views of educational achievement that include learner, social, and instructional variables. An initial sense of efficacy for performing well can motivate learners to act in ways that enhance performance. As students perceive their progress, their sense of efficacy is validated, which sustains motivation. The articles have been clustered around four themes: attributions, learning strategies, learner characteristics, and teacher efficacy. A suggested future research agenda includes models of achievement, student behaviors, and teaching processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on the structure of emotion.

This section is devoted to articles about the structure of affect, the patterned interrelations of moods and emotions. Structural features of affect, such as a bipolar pleasantness–unpleasantness dimension, a circumplex ordering, prototypical discrete emotions, and separable positive and negative emotion clusters, are discussed. It is proposed that positive and negative affect systems create the conditions for the co-occurrence of discrete positive emotions with each other and of discrete negative emotions with each other. The experience of affect tends to be felt along a bipolar pleasantness–unpleasantness dimension because pleasant emotions and unpleasant emotions tend not to be experienced together at intense levels. To move beyond current knowledge, future research in the area must more often use non-self-report measures, more sophisticated statistical and measurement methods, dynamic as well as static data, systematically varied response formats, and experimental manipulations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on the concept of disorder.

Despite the absence of a consensual definition of disorder, considerable research and clinical work is based on the categorization and diagnosis of mental disorder. This article introduces a special section of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology that expands the debate between J. C. Wakefield (1999), who has proposed a harmful dysfunction analysis of disorder and S. O. Lilienfeld and L. Marino (1995, 1999), who offer an alternative Roschian or prototype analysis. This introduction summarizes the main arguments of Wakefield's target article and eight critiques and discusses the conceptual value of the debate, especially an integration of diverse viewpoints and stimulation to further consideration of this important topic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to special issue: The plus ultra of empirical research.

Recent advances in cognitive science and neuroscience (CSN) have allowed scientists to begin to address questions that were heretofore considered the province of the humanities. Growing out of a 2007 conference at Bucknell University, this volume explores recent research in many different areas that combines the methods and perspectives of both the humanities and CSN. This introduction argues that the barriers to such work (such as the opposition between objective scientific research and subjective humanistic research) are purely of our own making and in no way absolute; it further asserts that the articles herein demonstrate that the potential benefits of interdisciplinary study far outweigh the risks. There is no fixed method for interdisciplinarity. Its success depends on respect for the particulars of each research question and the imagination to see what combinations of different disciplines might work best. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)