Psychologists in public service and the public.

"In the opinion of many, the most serious difficulty facing psychologists [in public service] is the attempt to subject professional work to close and minute administrative control." "Our job is not only to give service, but to improve the society we live in. This should be the major contribution of the psychologist in public service." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Public Image of Psychology.

Comment on the public image of psychology. It is suggested that an alarming and distasteful image of psychologists is in the process of being formed as a by-product of the Era of the Corruption of Things Psychological. This era has been ushered in by our neglect of public relations, by the Sunday-supplement popularity of the mysteries of the mind, and by the discovery that psychological means of influencing behavior are a highly salable commodity in the nonacademic market place. As psychologists expand and refine their techniques for control of human behavior, the urgency of this problem of public relations will increase accordingly. This demands something more than the tranquilizing effect of an APA symposium on the Ethics of the Application of Psychology or the soporific of a prestige-laden committee to define the nature of the problem. We would be well-served by a simple tithing of the time, energy, and resources we now devote to the internecine conflicts with other helping sciences. Ideally, the perception others have of us ought to be a prime order of business for the leaders of every division of psychology, and participation in a design for public education ought to be as automatic a contribution to our mutual well-being as the paying of annual dues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial: Psychology in the Public Forum.

With this issue, I am pleased to announce a new section of the American Psychologist entitled "Psychology in the Public Forum," with Patrick H. DeLeon as the associate editor for this section. Psychology in the Public Forum intends to provide psychologists with perspectives concerning the public arenas in which psychology must exist. Such a forum approach should aid our understanding of those public issues that both affect psychology and provide opportunities for psychologists to bring their expertise to bear as scientists, as practitioners, and as educators. I am very pleased to have two quite distinct articles appearing this month to inaugurate this section. Senator McGovern provides a broad-ranging view from a 20- to 30-year perspective of a number of intertwined issues that have in his view influenced the course of our society, and Mary G. Hager covers science and health in the Washington area for Newsweek magazine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awards for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest: 1987.

Announces the winners of the 1987 Awards for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. These awards recognize persons who, in the opinion of the Committee on Psychology in the Public Interest Awards, have advanced psychology as a science and/or profession by a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of outstanding contributions in the public interest. This year's recipients are Michael J. Saks and Urie Bronfenbrenner. For each recipient a citation, biography, and selected bibliography are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graduate students and selective service.

The effect of recent selective service policies upon the production of scientists in general and psychologists in particular. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awards for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest.

Presents the 2003 APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Public Interest. A list of the members of the APA committee who selected the recipients for this year and a list of the previous recipients of this award from 1978 through 2003 are provided. The award recipients for 2003 are Phyllis Katz and Claude M. Steele. The award citation and award address by Dr. Katz and the award citation, biography and selected bibliography of Dr. Steele are included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists in Federal service as of June 30, 1953.

A table is presented indicating the number of psychologists in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Public Health Service, and Veterans Administration. The gross number is further specified in terms of kinds of degrees possessed, APA membership, diplomate status, and rank. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Section 4: Monitoring American Psychology.

Previews articles in a special section monitoring American psychology's manpower. Articles in this section cover the nature and problems of applying to graduate school, psychologists' involvement in public policy and social issues, the development of a new APA manpower data system, and job placement trends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obligation of Psychologists.

Contends that while Brayfield's paper (American Psychologist, 1967, 22, 182-186) was a most commendable effort, its emphasis was solely on the role of organized psychology in public affairs. The present author feels that beyond the role of organized psychology, psychologist members of society have a further obligation: to contribute to social, national, and world affairs by helping to resolve critical and major problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue: Psychology and AIDS.

From its beginnings in 1981, psychologists have been involved in worldwide efforts to meet the many challenges of the AIDS health crisis. As researchers and practitioners, as consultants and policy advisors, as educators and evaluators, and as activists and concerned members of the community--we psychologists have responded in many ways. We have attempted a broad perspective in approaching this special issue. We wanted coverage of the science, the practice, and the social issues that AIDS has brought into focus for psychology. Any attempt to cover all the issues is doomed to failure, however. The science changes too quickly, and the disease is spreading too rapidly, for any group of journal articles to ever claim currency and comprehensiveness. The issue has been divided into six major sections, each with an introduction. We begin with articles that overview the roles of psychology in the AIDS health crisis as seen in our own profession, and from various levels of science, health care, and legislative and government action. Then we present articles reviewing some of the primary issues AIDS commands us to examine: public health, antibody testing, AIDS and the communities of Black and Hispanic men, IV drug abuse, sexual behavior change, stigma, and psychoneuroimmunology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists in Schools of Public Health: Current Status, Future Prospects, and Implications for Other Health Settings.

The deans and departmental chairs of the 22 schools of public health were asked in 1981 to list all psychologists holding full-time faculty appointments and the names of courses with a substantial behavioral/psychological content. Responses were received from 98% of the departments. The psychologists were then sent a survey concerning their backgrounds, job responsibilities, and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with their positions. There was an 80% response rate. Psychologists accounted for 5.7% of the approximately 1,300 full-time faculty in schools of public health. Psychologists represented a larger percentage of the faculty in departments of behavioral science than in departments of epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, and so forth. Public health psychologists were active researchers and publishers, with average totals of 2.5 articles and 26.9 citations for a three-year period. The primary advantages of employment in a school of public health had to do with an appreciation of the public health perspective, an interdisciplinary orientation, and research opportunities. The primary dissatisfactions cited were financial insecurity, isolation from psychology, and lack of appreciation among public health colleagues of the contribution of psychology to public health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

2003 Award Winners: Distinguished Contributions to the Public Interest.

Presents the 2003 APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Public Interest. This award is conferred on a psychologist who has made a distinguished empirical and/or theoretical contribution to research in public policy either through a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of work. A list of the previous recipients of this award from 1978 through 2003 are provided. The award citation, biography, and selected bibliography of the research of each of the award recipients for 2003 are included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists for the public schools: A training program.

"Psychological services in the public schools face a demand there is no hope of meeting in the foreseeable future… . Our concept of training at Peabody… has grown out of a belief that psychology's contribution to the schools might well lie in the three not unrelated aspects of the field… current knowledge of human behavior, skills in interpersonal relations, and research ability." The school psychologist curriculum is described. Students "take basic courses in experimental, personality theory, developmental, learning, measurement, and social psychology." Emphasis is placed on research training and training in clinical skills. "The core seminar makes heavy use of the experiences students acquire in the demonstration-training center which Peabody has established in a nearby town as a central aspect of the program." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and Pediatrics.

Comments on the article by Logan Wright (see record 1990-55805-001), which discussed the special knowledge, training, and roles required in the emerging subspecialty of pediatric psychology. The current author suggests that the task at hand might better be faced by conceptualizing two mature sciences working side by side rather than attempting to produce "offspring". (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some Negro perceptions of psychologists: an observation on psychology's public relations.

Using 14 colored undergraduates given rudimentary training in interviewing, 51 Southern Negroes' perceptions of the general activities of psychologists and their specific work in the area of Negro-white relations were secured. The implication of these results for APA public relations is noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional Psychology in Crisis.

Notes that professional psychologists should be aware of the immediate and long-range goals of the American Psychiatric Association. Their program includes (a) aggressively developing a uniform peer review program directed toward inclusion in national health insurance, (b) lobbying for federal funds in order to conduct research on the efficacy of psychiatry, and (c) consolidating services by concentrating on more traditional psychiatry based on the medical model--pharmacology, neurology, forensic psychiatry. Their representatives indicated that they were not interested in being "just another psychologist or social worker." To combat this attack, psychologists must be well trained in distinguishing the unique aspects of their profession and in conducting themselves with appropriate decorum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effectiveness of antismoking public service announcements on children's intent to smoke.

The authors randomly assigned 5th- and 8th-grade students to 1 of 3 treatment conditions to study the effects of frequency of exposure to an antismoking public service announcement (PSA) on the students' intent to smoke over time. They found that, among younger children only, viewing an antismoking PSA at least once reduced smoking intentions, although these positive effects did not remain over time. However, the antismoking PSA was effective for younger at-risk children. After younger at-risk children viewed the antismoking PSA once, their intent to smoke decreased significantly. Notably, these positive effects remained stable over time and mirrored the smoking intentions of younger children who were not identified as at risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotropics, Consultation, and Psychology.

The status of psychology in national health insurance is clouded in the minds of some Washington planners because the independent practice of psychology is identified with fee-for-service payment mechanisms, active treatment is identified with drug therapy rather than psychotherapy, and planners are unfamiliar with the nature and the scope of the practice of psychologists. Also, some feel that psychology is not equivalent in practice to psychiatry because psychologists are not integrated into the medical community and because psychologists do not prescribe drugs. These criticisms seem unfounded, since physicians and psychologists have regular consultations and psychologists see many patients who have previously been treated with psychotropic medications. Further, clinical experience indicates frequent therapeutic success by reducing or discontinuing medication rather than placing patients on psychotropics. Accordingly, a questionnaire was sent to the 87 members of the Cleveland Academy of Consulting Psychologists (CACP), requesting information concerning the prescribing of psychotropics and records of interprofessional consultations. The results are provided here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inescapable moralities: Psychology as public philosophy.

Critical psychologists repeatedly lament the fact that we spend most of our time criticizing, unmasking and deconstructing prevailing psychological models, and rather less time rebuilding and reinventing them. Of course, important contributions have been made by theorists who present concrete alternatives to the theories and practices we challenge. Yet there have been relatively few attempts to articulate a guiding vision or visions of what we should be doing. This article discusses a symposium that was organized as an attempt to press beyond the "debunking" phase. All of the papers embody attempts to move into the less-travelled territory of moral conversation. They are predicated upon certain fundamental assumptions about the moral and political situatedness of psychology. The five papers that follow are offered with the recognition that they are neither the first nor the last word on the normative dimensions of psychological discourse. In addition to the specific contribution made by each author, the collective aim of the panel is both to highlight the ongoing moral situations in which we are all caught, and, perhaps most importantly, to invite further conversation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and the space frontier.

Psychology and psychologists have made important contributions "generally in the selection of astronauts, the determination of astronaut capabilities and design of the work station to match these, and the design of training equipment and methods for astronaut training… . Psychology as a science has a vital role to play in the conquest of space… . Psychologists have responded with vigor and imagination to the challenging problems of space flight… . The space flight challenge brings with it the stimulation of new ideas and opens opportunities for new types of research on human behavior… . Psychology has much to gain in the form of new knowledge, and also, in status as a science, from its participation in the push into space." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)