An epistemological problem for evolutionary psychology

This article draws out an epistemological tension implicit in Cosmides and Tooby's conception of evolutionary psychology. Cosmides and Tooby think of the mind as a collection of functionally individuated, domain‐specific modules. Although they do not explicitly deny the existence of domain‐general processes, it will be shown that their methodology commits them to the assumption that only domain‐specific cognitive processes are capable of producing useful outputs. The resultant view limits the scope of biologically possible cognitive accomplishments and these limitations, it will be argued, are such as to deny us epistemic capacities that evolutionary psychology presupposes in its pursuit of an objective, comprehensive account of human nature.     

An ecological approach to child and family clinical and counseling psychology

The ecological model of child and family clinical and counseling psychology considers mental health service delivery within a health maintenance framework, approaching the complexity of children's behavior in a systematic and organized fashion using science-based intervention practices. The service delivery framework integrates assessment, intervention, and motivation at all phases of an intervention. Assessments enhance the participants' and professionals' appraisal, which in turn impact motivation to change. Interventions are sensitive to assessment-based targets and participant motivation. A menu of interventions range from assessment, feedback, and brief interventions to more extensive mental health services, potentially integrated with other community agencies and school settings. The ecological model suggests revisions in the conceptualization of child and adolescent psychopathology, training for mental health professionals, and strategies for the design and testing of interventions. In general, a reformulation of mental heath services for children and families within an ecological framework enhances the potential for integrating science and practice.     

新媒体研究述评及其心理学研究取向

新媒体的横空出世,对人们的生活带来极大影响。针对新媒体自身的一些问题及其影响,国内外进行了一系列研究。在综观相关研究成果基础上,介绍了新媒体的内涵与外延、特征及新媒体时代的起始时间,并主要介绍了新媒体的研究焦点,包括新媒体对人们生活方式及生活质量的影响,影响人们对新媒体态度及行为背后的心理因素分析。最后,在综合评价已有研究的基础上,提出应进一步加强新媒体的心理学研究取向,同时指出新媒体研究问题的具体深入化、方法的多元化及研究的本土化是未来的研究趋向。     

Advancing a clinical transport psychology

This article argues that mental disorders are a dimension so far largely overlooked in studies of transport behaviour and mobility consumption, even though they may to a considerable degree affect how we understand, value, and use different transport modes. Mental disorders include anxiety-, mood-, substance abuse-, and personality disorders, each of which affects only up to a few per cent of the population in industrialised countries. On an aggregated basis, however, mental illnesses influence large parts of the population. Based on an exploratory research approach, this article discusses how mental disorders affect, and are affected by, mobility consumption, also identifying social, political and/or institutional mechanisms that contribute to or validate mental disorders. It is argued that without a better understanding of these interrelationships, mobility consumption and -growth cannot be fully understood. Results are consequently of relevance for transport planning, the prevention of accidents, as well as the design of interventions to develop more sustainable transport systems.     

Automaticity in clinical psychology.

The authors provide an overview of the literature on the ability of response expectancies to elicit automatic responses in the form of self-fulfilling prophecies and link it to the broader psychological investigation of automatic processes. The authors review 3 areas of research in which response expectancies have been shown to affect experience, behavior, and physiology: placebo effects, the effects of false biofeedback on sexual arousal, and the alteration of perceptual and cognitive functions by hypnotic and nonhypnotic suggestion. Also reviewed are data suggesting that all behavior, including novel and intentional behavior, is initiated automatically. Following this review, the authors summarize some of the ways in which knowledge of response expectancy effects and other automatic processes that influence experience and behavior can enhance clinical practice.     

Family therapy and clinical psychology

The results of a survey of 111 clinical psychologists in the Republic of Ireland along with some comparable data from US and UK surveys were used to address a series of questions about the link between family therapy and clinical psychology. Family therapy was not a clearly identifiable sub-specialty within clinical psychology in Ireland. Family therapy theoretical models were used by more than a quarter of the Irish sample to conceptualize their work but by less than a tenth of US and UK respondents. In all three countries about a tenth of treatment time was devoted to the practice of family therapy. In Ireland, the use of family systems models, family assessment interviews and family therapy was more common within the child and family specialty than within the mental handicap or adult mental health clinical psychology specialties. The experience of live supervision and participation in family or couples therapy were important formative factors in the development of some clinical psychologists. Further training in systemic consultation, particularly in situations where an abuse of power has occurred, was identified in the survey as a priority area for continuing professional development. The evolving relationship between family therapy and clinical psychology is discussed in the light of these findings.     

The development of counselling psychology in a clinical psychology service

This paper will describe one Clinical Psychology department's efforts to incorporate Counselling Psychology into the service. It is written from the experience of the Chartered Counselling Psychologist.     

An attitude profile for studies of population psychology

Attitudes toward specific issues in population covary, but are independent enough to warrant separate assessment. Identifiable components include family planning, abortion, contraception, and population management. Modernity may be defined as a norm-setting factor, establishing a baseline around which the four other dimensions may vary. A system of beliefs will be more or less in phase or out of phase depending on the congruence between modernity and the other four indices. Scales to assess each factor were developed, and an attempt was made to minimize unwanted or artifactual variance pertaining to generalized distrust or misanthropy. Five case vignettes were given to illustrate the personological implications of contrasting profile configurations.     

An on-line psychology laboratory for teaching and research

This paper describes a PDP-15 timesharing system in which on-line experimentation and an undergraduate laboratory course co-exist with many other users. Design features include precise stimulus and response timing, easy experiment programming, easy system access, and 15 or more simultaneous users. Students can be both experimenters and subjects in realistic, variable course modules.     

Comparison of counseling and clinical psychology graduates on the examination for professional practice in psychology

Doctoral recipients in clinical psychology scored higher than doctoral recipients in counseling psychology on the national licensing exam, the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology. The largest discrepancies between the 2 groups were on Subtest I (diagnosis), Subtest II (intervention), and Subtest III (research). The differences were less large for Subtest IV (professional/ethical/legal issues) and for Subtest V (social application). The authors recommend that both counseling and clinical psychology graduate students take more course work in the department of the other discipline.     

Examination for professional practice in psychology subtest scores of professional and traditional clinical psychology program graduates

Professional school clinical psychology graduates not only exhibit inferior performance on the research subtest of the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP; D. I. Templer & M. E. Tomeo, 1998), but they also perform less well on the four more professionally oriented subtests: diagnosis, intervention, professional/ethical/legal issues, and application to social systems. Graduates of free-standing professional schools exhibited performances inferior to those of graduates of non-free-standing professional schools on the diagnosis, intervention, and professional/ethical/legal subtests.