Community Mental Health Service Providers' Codes of Ethics and the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing

This study compared the codes of ethics of 13 professional organizations for community mental health service providers that have been represented at the meetings of the Fair Access Coalition for Testing with the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association [AERA], American Psychological Association [APA], & National Council on Measurement in Education [NCME], 1985) and all those standards cited in the revised Standards (AERA, APA, & NCME, 1999) that the investigators identified as pertaining to clinical assessment, as these standards apply to test users. The results suggest that only 2 of the codes of ethics address many of the Standards. Implications and recommendations for professional organizations are provided.     

Psychological Testing and Treatment Implications: We Can Say More

Psychologists invest considerable time and labor in psychological testing and report writing. Patients and families expose vulnerabilities and make a significant financial and time investment in the hope that testing will make a difference in treatment. Frequently, though, handling of treatment implications in reports is generic, which might not justify the time, expense, and emotional investment involved in the evaluation. As diagnosticians, we have the responsibility and potential to contribute more meaningfully to the work of our referring colleagues and the treatment of the patients we assess. I review the psychotherapy research literature to highlight evidence-based findings that can serve as guideposts in formulating treatment implications. Subsequently, I illustrate how we can use test data to make nuanced inferences about therapeutic alliance, potential resistances, likely transferences and countertransferences, and conceptualizing treatment on the supportive–expressive continuum.     

Digging Deeper: Why Metaphysics is More Than a Toolbox

Steven French (J Gen Philos Sci,  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-018-9401-8, 2018) proposes a vindication of “scientifically disinterested” metaphysics that leaves little room to its original ambitions. He claims that (1) as a discipline that looks to find out truths about the world, it is untenable; and that (2) rather, its vindication lies in its use as a “toolbox” of concepts for a philosophical discipline that does have a claim at getting us closer to truth—the philosophy of science, and more specifically of physics. I respond to both his main claims. The first claim, I argue, neglects what I call (with Ralf Busse) “archaeological” metaphysics, which tries to impose some order on phenomena by “digging deeper” from the less to the more fundamental, or from the less to the more abstract questions. The second claim imposes a hierarchical relation between metaphysics and philosophy of science which should, I argue, be replaced with a more egalitarian picture of philosophy.     

More Than Words: Response to Phelan

Studies in Philosophy and Education -     

The Impact of Theory on Psychological Testing: How Psychoanalytic Theory Makes Diagnostic Testing More Enjoyable and Rewarding

The psychometric properties of three scales of alexithymia were examined in a sample of 187 female undergraduates. The Shalling Sifneos Personality State (SSPS) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory (MMPI) Alexithymia scale had little internal consistency. The scored archetypal test with nine elements (SAT) had very low interrater reliability. As predicted, the three measures were not significantly related to one another and the SSPS had a more clearly defined factor structure than the MMPI scale. The MMPI and SSPS scales were differentially related to measures of symptomatology but were similarly related to extraversion, absorption, and SAT scores. Of the three scales, the SSPS appeared to have the highest content validity. The results suggest that alexithymia is not a unitary construct and that its reification as such may be premature.     

More Than Just a Ticklish Subject: History, Postmodernity and God

The paper begins by tracing the development of the understanding of truth as adjunct to the self in postmodernity. It then proceeds to ask what history is in postmodernity in the light of the reconfiguration of truth, and what kinds of response Christianity, and especially Catholic Christianity might develop to the postmodern situation. Using a critique of Habermas' speech "Modernity – an incomplete project" it develops a notion of postmodernity as an extreme interpretation of modernity, solely through reference to the self. By analysing the concept of the universal horizon in Habermas and in Hegel it shows how postmodernity both produces and deflects the notion of modernity, so that prior to the postmodern, neither modernity nor postmodernity can really be said to be thought at all.
The paper suggests that postmodernity is not really 'thought' at all, but rather thinks for us, so that we take it for granted. It then takes a sketch of Nietzsche's critique of the death of God as a springboard to ask what arenas a thoughtless theological response might be tempted into – especially that of conceiving the world purely and baldly as "sacramental" in structure. Finally it concludes by asking what possibilities postmodernity opens up through a thoughtful discernment of how it constitutes us at all     

Culturally Competent Assessment: More Than Nonbiased Tests

The persistent and unresolved issue of minority disproportionality in special education provides a strong rationale for ensuring that assessment is culturally appropriate and sensitive. An extensive literature on test bias has failed to find evidence of bias sufficient to fully explain disproportional representation of minorities in special education. Yet minorities in this nation, most especially African Americans, have been exposed to a long history of unequal opportunity and oppression, and these inequities continue to be played out in educational settings. In the face of inadequate cultural and educational opportunity, unbiased tests provide an accurate estimate not only of individual capability, but also of the inhospitable conditions that depress that capability. A failure to take differential educational opportunity into account when considering minority test performance may lead to serious errors of test score interpretation. In the face of unequal educational opportunity, culturally competent assessment thus means more than manipulating the content of tests. Rather, it represents a comprehensive process that uses the results of assessment to identify and remedy educational conditions that systematically disadvantage students of color.     

The Scientist-Practitioner Model: Now More Than Ever

The scientist-practitioner model has been fundamental to the field of professional psychology for over 50 years. Although other training models have been offered in an attempt to improve training or meet other needs, we view many of the changes suggested by these models as consistent with the original intent of scientist-practitioner training. We argue that the reciprocal effects of science and practice within this model, if appropriately integrated, remain an excellent fit for integrating science and practice and enhancing the quality of both the practice and science of psychology. We address some of the problems with how the model has been implemented and offer recommendations for ways to enhance science and practice integration. Finally, we describe some of the mechanisms we have used to put these principles into practice in our counseling psychology training program.     

Social Trust: Fairness Matters More Than Homogeneity

This article explores whether homogeneity or fairness better explains generalized interpersonal trust across countries. Although some research suggests that ethnic diversity and income heterogeneity have a negative impact on social trust, I argue that cross‐national variations in social trust are better explained by fairness: fair procedural rules (democracy), fair administration of rules (freedom from corruption), and fair income distribution (relatively equal but also unskewed). This expectation is confirmed by a multilevel analysis of data from the World Values Surveys and European Values Study covering 170,000 individuals in 80 countries.     

Arendt and Augustine: More Than One Kind of Love

Although Hannah Arendt is not usually read as a philosopher of religion, her political philosophy is noticeably filled with references to religious figures and thinkers, including Jesus of Nazareth, Augustine and Duns Scotus. Also notable is the implicit centrality in her thought of amor mundi, or love of the world. The difficulty is that although she spoke to her students about it, she rarely wrote about amor mundi. In this article, I seek to provide a plausible explanation of the meaning of amor mundi in Arendt’s thought, drawing in particular upon the influence of Augustine on Arendt’s unique development of the ethical and political principle of love for the world. Specifically, through a close reading of Arendt’s doctoral dissertation, Love and Saint Augustine, I identify the relationship between Augustine’s conception of cupiditas and Arendt’s conception of amor mundi.     

应对癌：需要的不仅仅是科技，更是智慧

今天人类应对癌有很多方法,然效果不太佳。重要的不是高科技的缺失,而是智慧的离场。只是迷信科技,而令智慧虚化,以至于陷入癌症控制不佳的尴尬境地。从癌本身的特别之处、临床实际案例、正反经验教训等探讨了这一问题,指出既要认识癌的错综性,某些惰性癌无需大动干戈,又提出性质不明朗时的几种富含智慧之对策。并且,强调治癌既需向前探究高科技,也需不时向后寻求历史智慧照耀,包括可吸取《孙子兵法》中的很多真知卓见,诸如不战而胜、慎战等在防范癌症中都有意义。着重指出,需要时“观察,未尝不是积极的诊疗措施”。

     

Predictors of Managerial Performance: More Than Cognitive Ability

This study investigated the discriminant validity of cognitive ability, managerial potential, fear of negative evaluation, interaction anxiousness, and audience anxiousness as predictors of managerial performance. As hypothesized cognitive ability significantly predicted only thinking and knowledge criteria. However, managerial potential was significantly correlated with all the criteria. As predicted, fear of negative evaluation predicted thinking and knowledge criteria, interaction anxiousness, and audience anxiousness. In turn, as predicted, interaction anxiousness significantly predicted interpersonal behavior and audience anxiousness significantly predicted communication behavior. Managerial potential and fear of negative evaluation were the only two predictors that were significantly correlated with overall performance.     

Having Responsive Facebook Friends Affects the Satisfaction of Psychological Needs More Than Having Many Facebook Friends

The use of social networking sites, such as Facebook, provides ample opportunities for the pursuit of interpersonal connection but may also bring to mind one's social isolation. The present research examined the effects of interpersonal neglect (i.e., low number of responding Facebook friends) on the satisfaction of fundamental human needs. Two studies revealed that receiving few responses from one's Facebook friends threatens the needs for belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. These effects were observable over and above the impact of general social connection to others (i.e., total number of Facebook friends) and tone of responses.     

Cognitive Sciences Research: More Than Thinking About Drug Abuse

On May 23, 1997, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the American Psychological Society co-sponsored a conference titled "Cognitive Sciences Research: More Than Thinking About Drug Abuse." The conference highlighted important lines of research, both within and outside of drug abuse, that may elucidate the relationships between substance abuse and cognitive processes. This Special Section of Psychological Science presents a compilation of articles from that conference by scientists who are working in the forefront of this exciting new research area. The research questions posed by these articles take the following forms: What are the cognitive and developmental effects (i.e., the consequences) of substance abuse? What are the antecedents or precursors of drug use that render persons vulnerable to taking drugs? How do the effects of drugs, in turn, become antecedents for changes in perception, behavior, and cognition that further enhance vulnerability to drugs?     

Beauty is More Than Skin Deep: Components of Attractiveness

This study examined the complex interrelationships among various static and dynamic components of physical attractiveness and their contributions to overall ratings of attractiveness and to the favorability of initial impressions. Two separate groups of undergraduate students completed a self-report measure of social and communication skills and were videotaped and photographed during initial encounters in a laboratory setting. The videotape segment or photographs were then shown to independent groups of judges who made multiple ratings of subjects' physical attractiveness, initial likability, and attractiveness as a dating partner. A series of structural equation models were fitted to the data. The model that provided the best fit to the data indicated that facial beauty and dynamic components of attractiveness were the most important contributors to overall evaluations of attractiveness, and that overall attractiveness in turn affected the positivity of initial impressions and desirability as a potential dating partner.