Pastoral psychology and preventive psychiatry

Pastoral Psychology -     

A social historical note on the formal emergence of community psychology

Recent interviews of 15 eminent community psychologists, 6 of whom attended the founding conference at Swampscott, highlighted some historically significant aspects of community psychology's emergence and provided background information concerning the conference's processes and content. The interview informants described the idealism of the era in the context of societal unrest, the struggle with psychiatrists' control of extant mental health services, and the uncertain role of a community orientation within academic psychology as key social historical factors. The informants identified some of the behind-the-scenes preparations for Swampscott as well as the conference climate and emergent ideology. The report concludes with a note on the historical status of women in the subdiscipline.     

The non-problem of free will in forensic psychiatry and psychology

This article demonstrates that there is no free will problem in forensic psychiatry by showing that free will or its lack is not a criterion for any legal doctrine and it is not an underlying general foundation for legal responsibility doctrines and practices. There is a genuine metaphysical free will problem, but the article explains why it is not relevant to forensic practice. Forensic practitioners are urged to avoid all usage of free will in their forensic thinking and work product because it is irrelevant and spawns confusion.     

A model for courseware development in psychology

Many behavioral scientists are aware of the advantages of a systematic approach to research and the development of software used in research. However, coordinated and systematic efforts to develop instructional materials in the behavioral sciences are relatively rare. This paper and the symposium of which it is a part describe a systematic effort funded by FIPSE to assess the needs for microcomputer tools and courseware in the undergraduate curriculum in psychology and to stimulate the development of high-quality materials. The conceptual bases for development of materials are vertical and horizontal integration-the development of courseware that spans the curriculum from introductory to advanced, specialized, courses, and the systematic use of materials within a course and across courses and subject areas. The activities of the project, as well as implications for other computer-based development projects, are discussed.