Stereotype threat and test performance: A primer for school psychologists

Ethical guidelines require school psychologists to ensure that their assessment practices are nondiscriminatory, but typical discussions on this topic neglect the possible discriminatory effects of cultural stereotypes on assessment results. Recent research on stereotype threat shows that students' knowledge of stereotype-based negative expectations about their test performance can depress their actual test performance. This paper discusses the range of conditions that promote stereotype threat and identifies important moderators and mediators of the phenomenon. Several practical suggestions are offered for school psychologists to consider when interviewing students, interpreting assessment results, and developing programs to increase schoolwide achievement.     

Corporate funding and conflicts of interest: a primer for psychologists

A presidential task force on external funding was established by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2003 to review APA policies, procedures, and practices regarding the acceptance of funding and support from private corporations for educational and training programs; continuing education offerings; research projects; publications; advertising; scientific and professional meetings and conferences; and consulting, practice, and advocacy relationships. This article, based on the Executive Summary of the APA Task Force on External Funding Final Report, presents the findings and unanimous recommendations of the task force in the areas of association income, annual convention, research and journals, continuing education, education, practice, and conflicts of interest and ethics. The task force concluded that it is important for both APA and individual psychologists to become familiar with the challenges that corporate funding can pose to their integrity. The nature and extent of those challenges led the task force to recommend that APA develop explicit policies, educational materials, and continuing education programs to preserve the independence of psychological science, practice, and education.     

Suicide assessment and evaluation strategies: a primer for counselling psychologists

Suicide is a recognized national health risk in many countries. In order to effectively intervene in suicidal crises, it is important for mental health professionals to understand facts about suicidal behaviour, procedures for assessing an individual's risk of self-harm, and the evaluation of the lethality of a client's suicidal gestures. With updated knowledge and proper training, counselling psychologists can play a vital role in suicide prevention. This paper summarizes for counselling psychologists current statistics about suicide, general and specific risk factors for suicidality, and assessment tools used to evaluate suicidal risk.     

Diffusion model analysis with MATLAB: A DMAT primer

The Ratcliff diffusion model has proved to be a useful tool in reaction time analysis. However, its use has been limited by the practical difficulty of estimating the parameters. We present a software tool, the Diffusion Model Analysis Toolbox (DMAT), intended to make the Ratcliff diffusion model for reaction time and accuracy data more accessible to experimental psychologists. The tool takes the form of a MATLAB toolbox and can be freely downloaded from ppw.kuleuven.be/okp/dmatoolbox. Using the program does not require a background in mathematics, nor any advanced programming experience (but familiarity with MATLAB is useful). We demonstrate the basic use of DMAT with two examples.     

Multiway frequency analysis for experimental psychologists.

Many research designs in experimental psychology generate data that are fundamentally discrete or categorical in nature, and produce multiway tables of frequencies. Despite an extensive and, more recently, accessible literature on the topic, multiway frequency analysis is rarely used in experimental psychology. A reason may be the form of exposition in the literature, with emphases and concerns far removed from those of the typical experimental psychologist. An approach to multiway frequency analysis for experimental psychologists is described that has the features we want: asymmetrical designs, factors assessed for their respective main and interactive effects in a manner analogous to ANOVA, and the ability to handle within-subject designs.     

Manifest values of eminent psychologists: A content analysis of their obituaries

Obituaries published in theAmerican Psychologist (from January 1979 to December 1990,N=161) were content analyzed to create a modal demographic profile of the deceased and a ranking of the most frequently occurring value themes. Virtually all of the eminent psychologists were highly productive academicians and researchers. Typically, they were also actively involved in other professional arenas (e.g., administration, service). The majority were male (87%), white (99%), and born in the United States (86%). Ninety-seven percent had obtained Ph.D.’s, most frequently from Columbia University (16%), Harvard (11%), and Chicago (6%). Median age at death was 76. The most frequently occurring value themes written about the deceased were that they were independent-minded (67%), a good friend (61%), hard-working (53%), a good teacher/mentor (51%), and a beloved family member (35%). The implications of these data are discussed.     

Charting the process of change: A primer on survival analysis

Survival analysis is a powerful and useful technique for understanding qualitative change. This article provides a practical, nontechnical introduction to the use of survival analysis for social scientists. Important issues in using survival analysis are discussed, including research design, data preparation and management, and data analysis. Attendance data from a self-helf organization are used to illustrate common survival analysis tasks such as describing the overall survival and hazard functions, examining covariate effects, and modeling the form of the hazard function over time. An appendix that discusses the strengths and weaknesses of current survival analysis computer programs is included. Editor's note: Edward Seidman served as action editor for this article while serving as Associate Editor for Methodology.I thank William Davidson, Susan Englund, Bruce Rapkin, Kurt Ribisl, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. The example data presented here were collected with the support of an NIMH grant (MH37390) awarded to Julian Rappaport and Ed Seidman.     

Vocational evaluation: A primer

Vocational evaluation (VE) is a comprehensive assessment process that can be used to inform assessment of people with barriers to employment other than the physical or mental disabilities for which it is typically used. This article defines components of VE as established by an international health and human services accreditation organization. The author's experience as a vocational evaluator and rehabilitation program supervisor serves as a reference. Implications for expanding its use and future research are discussed.     

The five connections: A human rights framework for psychologists

This article provides a brief introduction to human rights, describes why human rights are intrinsic to psychology, and introduces the “Five Connections Framework,” which was adopted by the American Psychological Association in 2021. This framework articulates five distinct relationships between human rights and psychology: (a) Psychologists possess rights by virtue of being human, as well as specific rights essential to their profession and discipline; (b) Psychologists apply their knowledge and methods to the greater realisation of human rights; (c) Psychologists respect human rights and oppose the misuse of psychological science; (d) Psychologists ensure access to the benefits of psychological science and practice; and, (e) Psychologists advocate for human rights. Each of the five connections is described, highlighting implications for psychological research, practice, training and advocacy, with suggestions for how these connections can guide and inspire individual psychologists and psychological associations worldwide.     

A Selective Service primer for counselors

This article summarizes the major provisions of the draft law as they pertain to the new registrant. It explains the importance of the registrant's being as cognizant as possible of his rights and obligations under the law. Finally, it describes how a counselor may help a young man obtain all the benefits to which he is entitled.     

Likelihood ratios: A simple and flexible statistic for empirical psychologists

Empirical studies in psychology typically employ null hypothesis significance testing to draw statistical inferences. We propose that likelihood ratios are a more straightforward alternative to this approach. Likelihood ratios provide a measure of the fit of two competing models; the statistic represents a direct comparison of the relative likelihood of the data, given the best fit of the two models. Likelihood ratios offer an intuitive, easily interpretable statistic that allows the researcher great flexibility in framing empirical arguments. In support of this position, we report the results of a survey of empirical articles in psychology, in which the common uses of statistics by empirical psychologists is examined. From the results of this survey, we show that likelihood ratios are able to serve all the important statistical needs of researchers in empirical psychology in a format that is more straightforward and easier to interpret than traditional inferential statistics.     

A call for dialogue: psychotherapists and psychologists specialising in psychotherapy

The development of psychotherapy as an independent discipline in many countries in Europe has stimulated debate within the field of psychology as to what constitutes psychotherapy as a specialism of psychology. The authors, both clinical psychologists who pursued further training in psychotherapy, offer a reflection in this paper on the historical battle between psychiatry and psychology for ‘ownership’ of psychotherapy, describe recent developments in Europe to clarify this specialism within psychology and discuss the distinctive contributions that psychologists offer in developing psychotherapy as a specialism within the discipline. The aim of the paper is to begin a dialogue both within the profession of psychology and outside the profession, with our psychotherapy colleagues, that can develop into an interdisciplinary discourse and a more mutually respectful professional environment.