Basic and Applied Cognitive Research in a Country Discovering Psychology

The paper illustrates how the author started research in the field of applied cognitive psychology. The paper describes the obstacles and opportunities associated with living in a country where Psychology was underdeveloped. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Continuity and Change in Role Definitions and Training Models of School Psychologists in Israel

Abstract

In accordance with one of the major challenges of psychology research and practice worldwide, school psychology in Israel has setas its aim the promotion of the emotional well-being of students. These aims are achieved through psychological evaluation and intervention, at the systemic and individual-student level. School psychology emerged in Israel in the 1930s, as a relatively narrow field, focused mainly on the placement of students in special education settings. Over the decades, major changes occurred in Israeli society, including waves of immigration, coping with security situations and additional socio-political challenges. In light of these transformations, the discipline grew and broadened, encompassing additional areas of professional practice. The training of school psychologists evolved in relation to these processes. From unsystematic training procedures, mostly embedded in child-clinical psychology and relying on on-the-job training, to a well-established system of graduate school programs producing dozens of school psychologists every year. Academic pre-service training is followed by a post-graduate internship in the public-school system. The developments in the field of school psychology brought about a host of challenges and dilemmas. These issues are discussed in relation to the broad aim of school psychology in Israel: the promotion of the emotional well-being of all students.     

School psychology: Failure and promise

School psychology can offer the practitioner a multitude of opportunities to aid parents, teachers, and children in the educational process. Evidence of the contribution of school psychology to the educational enterprise can be found in the analysis of activities of school psychologists as well as program trainers. This is an account of one such odyssey. Observing that school psychology is showing signs of strain and stress, the author describes some of the issues facing the field and warns of consequences of lack of consensus in solving the many problems of school support services.     

Development and Implementation of a Sport Psychology Program in an Urban High School

SUMMARY

This article is based on a dissertation of the author that was centered on the process of developing a sport psychology program at the high school level. The program was developed to address academic, mental, social, and emotional needs of student-athletes and coaches. This sport psychology program, which was developed in the Linden Public School District, a large urban district in New Jersey, may be the first such program documented on a national level. In this dissertation, the author, who was a school psychologist in the district, utilized a particular program planning and evaluation framework, with attention to the first two phases-clarification and designto develop and implement a sport psychology program.     

A Rogerian Perspective on Empathic Patterns in Southern African Healing

This article offers a reflective comment on the topics presented in this special issue. These topics address the concept of community psychology from various perspectives presented in three thematic categories: The states and form of community psychology; the application of community psychology to vulnerable groups and the concept of service delivery and methodologies. The author highlights trends gleaned from the articles, implicitly or explicitly—that of the efficacy of community psychology as a credible branch of psychology, changes needed in training programmes and the idea of the circularity that is community which exists because of the individual who exists because of community.     

Comprehensive psychological services at the secondary level utilizing student paraprofessionals

This article notes references in school psychology literature which focus on dissatisfaction with role, claiming that the field has remained reactive and narrow in scope in spite of major statements calling for more expansive roles during the past several decades. A broad, comprehensive paraprofessional training/supervisory model utilizing secondary level students is described; the model incorporates twelve paraprofessional involvement areas as part of a total high school psychological services delivery system. It is noted that individual client data and program evaluation have portrayed student improvement rates ranging from 50% to 90%, increased consumer satisfaction with psychological services, and increased visibility and knowledge of the psychologist's role among total school population. Suggestions for further research and evaluation are discussed.     

The appropriate domain of the school psychologist

It is argued that efforts to delineate the roles and functions of school psychologists for the purpose of establishing national guidelines are useless. The “appropriate domain” is a function of the competencies and interests of the psychologist, the characteristics of the situation in which he works, and the effects of the interaction between the two. Preparation in basic areas of behavior and psychological methodology are advocated as essential for adaptability to changes and development of leadership in this field. Efforts should be devoted to increasing effectiveness in the use of psychological knowledge and methods in the school setting.     

It's the only dream I know

The decade immediately following World War II was a time of rapid growth for clinical psychology. School psychology, slightly behind chronologically, also expanded quickly. The past 30 years have in fact been an era of great excitement in our society and in our schools. Atleast that is the opinion of the author of this article, whose career as a school psychologist is chronicled here, with references to societal mores as well as professional experiences. This is the story of a practitioner, a grass roots participant in the history of school psychology.     

The role of the school psychologist: Teachers'' preferences as a function of personal and professional characteristics

Teachers were surveyed concerning the importance of 12 potential roles for school psychologists (e.g., counseling, case or program consultation, community liaison, psychodiagnostics). Results showed that direct and remedial services which did not require the school psychologist to intrude on the teacher's prerogatives were in general considered to be most important. However, teachers who reported using “open education” methods were significantly more likely to value more indirect, preventive, and collaborative school psychology services than their colleagues. Grade level taught, gender, experience, and teaching specialty had virtually no effect on respondents' ratings of the school psychologist roles.     

Experiences of school psychology interns in psychology internship centers

In the development of psychology internship centers, we must not overlook what is happening to interns from different specialty backgrounds. This article describes centers that accept school psychology students, and examines the nature of the experiences that such students receive as interns. The author suggests implications for school psychology and the broader development of the internship in professional psychology.     

Guidelines for planning and evaluating school psychology service delivery systems

Contemporary standards of professional practice (e.g., American Psychological Association, 1977) and recent educational compliance legislation (e.g., PL 94–142) emphasize the delivery of appropriate school psychological services geared to a range of school-age children with special needs. Thus, school psychologists must pay increased attention to the development of school psychology service delivery systems. Toward this end, guidelines are presented for planning and evaluating school psychology service delivery systems. The guidelines are set forth in order that school psychologists might consider them and adapt them to local circumstances. The eight principles which comprise the guidelines have been used by the author in planning and evaluating school psychology service delivery systems in several public school districts. One particular school district will serve to illustrate the utilization of the guidelines.     

Effects of the Maytiv positive psychology school program on early adolescents' well-being,engagement, and achievement

As positive psychology is a nascent area of research, there are very few empirical studies assessing the impact and sustained effects of positive psychology school interventions. The current study presents a 2-year longitudinal evaluation of the effects of a school-based positive psychology program on students' subjective well-being, school engagement, and academic achievements. The study investigated the effectiveness of the Maytiv school program using a positive psychology-based classroom-level intervention with 2517 seventh- to ninth-grade students in 70 classrooms, from six schools in the center of Israel. The classes were randomly assigned to intervention and control conditions, which were comparable in terms of students' age, gender, and socio-economic status. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed positive intervention effects on positive emotions, peer relations, emotional engagement in school, cognitive engagement, and grade point average scores (Cohen's ds 0.16–0.71). In the control group, there were significant decreases in positive emotions and cognitive engagement, and no significant changes in peer relations, emotional engagement or school achievements. These findings demonstrate the significant socio-emotional and academic benefits of incorporating components of positive psychology into school curricula.     

Organizational school psychology: Issues and considerations

School psychologists have been encouraged to become actively involved in facilitating organizational change in public schools. Activities such as organization development, administrative-centered consultation, training of multidisciplinary teams, program planning, and program evaluation have been considered as important aspects of school psychology. However, when the practice of school psychology at the organizational level of public schools is considered as a distinct area, a range of conceptual and practical issues become apparent: (a) What is the nature and scope of organizational-level practice of school psychology? (b) Under what conditions may this kind of professional effort be useful, to whom, in what ways? (c) What are the knowledge and skills necessary for effective organizational-level practice? These issues are addressed in this article through delineation of the emerging area of “organizational school psychology (OSP),” an approach to school psychology practice which complements more established approaches that focus directly on the individual child or on groups of children.     

Mourning the person one could have become: The existential transition for the psychotherapy clients experienced by abuse or neglect

Mourning the “Person One Could Have Become” (POCHB) is an existential transition for traumatized individuals. In order to survive, they tend to mystify their existence, hoping that one day they will eventually turn into POCHB. POCHB is conceptualized as personality and physical characteristics that could have emerged if an individual at the right time had received an appropriate quantity and quality of nurturing and developmental stimuli, which consequently would have enabled the person to make more mature choices. The process of mourning the POCHB is part of the group therapy. The role of the therapist in facilitating such mourning is discussed. Possible obstacles to the process of mourning are depicted. Theoretical assumptions are illustrated with cases of two clients.     

The effectiveness of a simulation technique as an integral part of a school psychology training program

A modified Solomon design was employed to study the effects of a school psychology simulation package on the enacted and written response of a group of school psychology preservice students. Fifty-two school psychology students from five training programs enrolled in the last quarter of school psychology training prior to internship were divided into two groups. The experimental group (N=20) received the simulation experience, whereas the control group (N=32) did not. Results generally indicated the superiority of the experimental group and suggested that simulation as an integral part of a school psychology training program is an effective method of instruction. Pretesting in combination with the simulation training improved posttest performance more than simulation training alone.     

Imaginal action: towards a Jungian conception of enactment,and an extraverted counterpart to active imagination

This theoretical paper considers the fashion in which Jung's psychology radically challenges modern assumptions concerning the nature of subjectivity. With an eye for the clinical implications of Jung's late work, the author introduces the idea of imaginal action. In order to explain what is meant by this, the paper begins by exploring how Jung's thinking demonstrates an underlying bias towards introversion. It is argued that while Jung's interest in synchronicity ultimately resulted in his developing a worldview that might address the introverted biases of his psychology, the clinical implications of this shift have not been sufficiently clarified. With reference to some short examples from experience, the author outlines a conception of relational synchronicity wherein the intrapsychic emerges non‐projectively within the interpersonal field itself. Comparing and contrasting these occurrences to the more introverted practice of active imagination, it is claimed that such a notion is implicit in Jung's work and is needed as a corrective to his emphasis on interiority. The author suggests that imaginal action might be conceived as a distinctly Jungian approach to the psychoanalytic notion of enactment. It is also shown how the idea outlined might find further support from recent developments in the field of transpersonal psychology.     

Challenges and opportunities in moving toward a public health approach in school mental health

These three outstanding papers are important for the discipline of school psychology, the field of school-based mental health, and more generally for systems of education and mental health for children and adolescents. As the authors emphasize, there is an unprecedented focus on improving programs that remove barriers to learning and enhance development, health, and mental health in youth, in the most universal natural setting—the schools. The authors also correctly highlight that school psychology is uniquely positioned to play a leading role in this reform and change effort. Two interconnected themes of the public health approach—applying the evidence base and moving toward preventive and population-focused interventions—are emphasized in these papers, and while they focus on school psychology, the issues discussed are generalizable to the many disciplines that operate within educational and mental health systems. In the following discussion, I react to the papers' two major themes, discuss realities that should be addressed for progress to be made, and comment on their implications for school psychology.     

Children's understanding of interpretation

The prevailing view in the study of children's developing theories of mind is that the 4-year-old's newfound understanding of false belief is the single developmental milestone marking entry into an adult “folk psychology.” We argue instead that there are at least two such watershed events. Children first develop a “copy theory” that equates the mind with a recording device capable of producing either faithful or flawed representations of reality and according to which mental states are determined entirely by the flow of information into the mind. Only later, in the early school years, do children come to appreciate, as do adults, that the mind itself can contribute to the content of mental states. This later-arriving “Interpretive Theory of Mind” allows an appreciation of the capacity for constructively interpreting and misinterpreting reality. The main finding from the six studies reported here is that children who otherwise demonstrate a clear understanding that beliefs can be false (and so deserve to be credited with a theory of mind), can nevertheless fail to appreciate even the most basic aspects of interpretation: that despite exposure to precisely the same information, two persons can still end up holding sharply different opinions about what is the self-same reality. What these studies reveal is that an interpretive theory of mind is different from, and later arriving than, an appreciation of the possibility of false belief, and contrary to competing claims, this interpretive theory actually makes its first appearance during, but not before, the early school years.     

Special education litigation and school psychology

When constitutional or statutory rights of exceptional children were violated, litigation was implemented as one means to obtain those rights. Legislative and administrative actions were exhausted before the issue was brought to the courts. The procedure of litigation was first initiated in 1967, and several landmark cases since then have provided prototypes for subsequent cases which concerned the rights of handicapped children. As a result of the gross injustice that existed in the education and treatment of handicapped children, there were over thirty lawsuits filed on their behalf. Education and treatment of the handicapped child, long viewed as a charitable endeavor, must now be considered as an inalienable right not to be denied to the “special” citizen. Although the courts have been forced to decide upon some of the critical issues regarding exceptional children, the implementation will be more effective and efficient if the education profession itself assumes the responsibility. This overview of significant litigation points up the evidence presented in the lawsuits which should be of concern to the practice of school psychology.