Context and process: An ecological view of the interdependence of practice and research: An invited address by James G. Kelly

Summary James G. Kelly has made important and wide-ranging conributions to community psychology. The field is fortunate to have a member with his vision and commitment. In the paper presented here, Jim discusses the advantages that arise when scientists and citizens work as collaborative partners in community research. As with his previous work, his ideas provide new insights into the role of community psychology in and for the community.The Social Ecology Network, chaired by Paul Florin, University of Rhode Island, and Division 27 invited Jim Kelly to give an invited address at the 1985 American Psychological Association meetings in Los Angeles. Paul also invited Jim to suggest several discussants. Jim was interested in having psychologists representing organizational, environmental, and clinical psychology discuss the address. Jim invited Bob Kahn, Dan Stokols, and Harold Raush to be discussants. David Altman's introduction, Jim's address, and the three discussant comments with some small elaborations and revisions are published here. At the address, Bob Kahn's comments were read by Rick Price.The Social Ecology Task Force was estblished in 1978. Its goal is to bring together psychologists and other professionals who have interests in using an ecological perspective in theory and practice (Florin, 1984). Current activities include a newsletter column in the Division 27 newsletter, a resource exchange among Task Force members, and sponsorship of invited lectures on social ecology at annual APA meetings. For additional information contact Paul Florin, Social Ecology Task Force, Department of Psychology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island.     

Capturing excellence in applied settings: A participant conceptualizer and praxis explicator role for community psychologists

Community psychology faces a crisis of personpower similar to that which Albee identified in the clinical field four decades ago. It is clear that there are not, and likely never will be, a sufficient number of community psychologists to be able to provide assessment, consultation, and planned change toward facilitating an inclusive psychological sense of community and sound health and prosocial development in all settings that could benefit from such assistance. To help resolve this crisis, an expanded role for community psychologists is proposed: that of participant conceptualizer and praxis explicator. A participant conceptualizer and praxis explicator has the role not only of working within settings to understand and help conceptualize change processes but also of reflecting on action processes that are a part of the setting, of reflecting on theory, and of generating products that share relevant learnings. How action research serves as the methodology that allows the flow and interplay of theory and action to take place also is discussed. Illustrations are drawn from the work of Leonard Bernstein, Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog, and the author's work in area of school-based social competence promotion. This article is based on much further reflection after my Distinguished Contribution to Practice in Community Psychology award address at APA in Toronto, August 1993. The latter was designed as a talk and featured musical excepts from Leonard Bernstein and Kermit the Frog, who also made an appearance at the talk and spoke briefly. A tape of the talk can be obtained from APA, for the curious. I think of my work as a public corporation, shares of which belong to many colleagues, friends, and mentors, far too numerous to mention. I give special thanks to Jim Kelly and Ed Trickett, to Irma Serrano-Garcia and Jim Dalton, to Emory Cowen and Roger Weissberg, to George Spivack and Myrna Shure, to Jack Chinsky and George Allen, to Tom Schuyler and to my parents, to those who generously shared selective truths about me that Jim Kelly compiled into marvelous and deeply appreciated introductory comments, and to my chief shareholders, my family, Ellen, Sara, and Samara, whose daily love, patience, and support I am honored to receive.     

Pedro's Significance

Williams's famous story of Jim exemplifies a general class of dilemmas caused by recalcitrant agents. Like Williams himself, most commentators have focused on Jim and the idea that he has special responsibility for his actions. This paper shifts attention to Pedro, exploring his significance in the story and arguing that Jim has a reason not to shoot that depends on Pedro's best possible response. In so doing, it sketches a new approach to the general class of dilemmas posed by recalcitrant agents, drawing attention to the advantages of this approach and to the difficulties it faces and comparing it to rival views associated with Ross and Kamm.     

A Kenotic Struggle for Dignity

Although Booker T. Washington stands outside the theological canon, his writings offer a pragmatic theology that connects the desire for dignity to a kenotic Christology through an ethic of unceasing work. While Washington's project to improve the lives of African Americans in the Jim Crow–era South was severely compromised by political circumstances, problems within his theology of work made his project especially susceptible to those circumstances. The tragedy of Washington's theology stems from his making dignity contingent upon work being recognized as useful by a worker's community. His kenotic ideal of “Christlike” work can actually degrade workers, if their community refuses to recognize their work's merit. Workers’ anxiety about dignity causes them to pour themselves into their work, but a racist society sees African American workers as inherently undignified. Even without Jim Crow's pervasive violence, the postindustrial reappearance of economic doctrines that characterized Washington's era makes his theological ethic relevant again.     

Complexities of the Latina experience: a tribute to Martha Bernal

This address discusses educational attainment rates among Latinas and factors that militate against their educational and professional achievement. The roles of family, community, discrimination, and strategies to counteract discrimination are discussed. It also contains a tribute to a Latina pioneer in psychology, Martha Bernal.     

Tribute to Don S. Browning (1934–2010)

This tribute adapts words originally written to honor Don S. Browning, one of the foremost pastoral and practical theologians and ethicists of his time, on the occasion of his death on June 3, 2010. The tribute appeared in the funeral worship bulletin on June 10, 2010 at Hyde Park Union Church in Chicago and was revised for a newsletter of a major educational institution with which he had many significant relationships and responsibilities (The Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago Bulletin 80, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2010); used with permission). Although we embellished the tribute slightly, we did not change its main intent: It captures the remarkable depth and breath of Browning’s scholarly achievement, the mark he made on public and academic discussion, and the extent to which he is missed by his colleagues, friends, and family.     

Estimating an unobserved component of a serial response time model

A method is developed for estimating the response time distribution of an unobserved component in a two-component serial model, assuming the components are stochastically independent. The estimate of the component's density function is constrained only to be unimodal and non-negative. Numerical examples suggest that the method can yield reasonably accurate estimates with sample sizes of 300 and, in some cases, with sample sizes as small as 100.The author wishes to thank David Kohfeld, Jim Ramsay, Jim Townsend and two anonymous referees for a number of useful and stimulating comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Nonmetric maximum likelihood multidimensional scaling from directional rankings of similarities

A maximum likelihood estimation procedure is developed for multidimensional scaling when (dis)similarity measures are taken by ranking procedures such as the method of conditional rank orders or the method of triadic combinations. The central feature of these procedures may be termed directionality of ranking processes. That is, rank orderings are performed in a prescribed order by successive first choices. Those data have conventionally been analyzed by Shepard-Kruskal type of nonmetric multidimensional scaling procedures. We propose, as a more appropriate alternative, a maximum likelihood method specifically designed for this type of data. A broader perspective on the present approach is given, which encompasses a wide variety of experimental methods for collecting dissimilarity data including pair comparison methods (such as the method of tetrads) and the pick-M method of similarities. An example is given to illustrate various advantages of nonmetric maximum likelihood multidimensional scaling as a statistical method. At the moment the approach is limited to the case of one-mode two-way proximity data, but could be extended in a relatively straightforward way to two-mode two-way, two-mode three-way or even three-mode three-way data, under the assumption of such models as INDSCAL or the two or three-way unfolding models.The first author's work was supported partly by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, grant number A6394. Portions of this research were done while the first author was at Bell Laboratories. MAXSCAL-4.1, a program to perform the computations described in this paper can be obtained by writing to: Computing Information Service, Attention: Ms. Carole Scheiderman, Bell Laboratories, 600 Mountain Ave., Murray Hill, N.J. 07974. Thanks are due to Yukio Inukai, who generously let us use his stimuli in our experiment, and to Jim Ramsay for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Confidence regions in Figures 2 and 3 were drawn by the program written by Jim Ramsay. We are also indebted to anonymous reviewers for their suggestions.     

Wellbeing??The Five Essential Elements

This is a review of the book “Wellbeing—The Five Essential Elements”, written by Tom Rath, a workplace researcher and leadership consultant and by Jim Harter chief, scientist for Gallup’s workplace management and wellbeing practices. The book is published in 2010 by GALLUP PRESS, New York, USA. Wellbeing The Five Essential Elements provides the reader, the general audience, academics and wellbeing practitioners alike with a broader view of what contributes to wellbeing over a period of some time. On reading this book, the readers will acquaint themselves with what the authors believe makes life meaningful in the 21st Century and beyond. This will help the broader spectrum of readers to enjoy the journey of daily life, while contributing to the wellbeing of friends, colleagues, community members and family members.     

A machine method for computing the biserial correlation coefficient in item validation

A method for computing the biserial correlation coefficients with the aid of punch card equipment is oultined. A numerical example and a work sheet layout is included in the presentation.This method was developed by Dr. Elmer B. Royer prior to his untimely death on April 3, 1939. It has been prepared for publication by some of his former associates, not only as a contribution to science but also as a tribute to the memory of a true scientist.     

Academic on a mission: Run and run and run

Challenges the distinctions we make between research/scholarship and practice. Recognizes and values the complimentarity of teaching, research, practice, and public policy. Tells how I have tried to approach creating opportunities to integrate those activities in my role as a community psychologist in an academic setting. Describes some of the lessons I have learned from my two decades of practice. This article is a very close approximation to my Distinguished Contribution to Practice in Community Psychology award address at APA in Toronto, August 1996. That talk included numerous overheads, which reason demands I omit. I thank Jim Sorenson and George Albee who, each in their own way, showed me that university professors can be passionate about their work and extend their reach beyond the perimeters of the campus. I thank Heather Barton, Krista Hopkins, Jennifer Heigel, and Anne Salassi for being such good ambassadors and for my most meaningful source of professional satisfaction: turning students on to careers as community psychologists and preventionists. I thank the Virginia prevention community for two decades of working together toward a common mission and the College of William and Mary for supporting my life’s work. Finally I thank John Morgan for his friendship and his affirming introduction, State Michaels for her help with the original talk, and Beverly Peterson for always being there. I am deeply honored.     

Continuing education & training

Abstract

Two important continuing education conferences are highlighted in this section. The first was held in New York in November, and was organized and is being reported by Anita Menfi, Director of the Family Studies Section, Bronx Psychiatric Center, New York. Since 1964 this center has trained therapists, supervisors and administrators who function within the mental health system, with a focus on a systems approach towards patients, their families, the service agencies that assist them, and the community in which they live. The conference keynote speaker, noted anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell headed a faculty of experienced family therapists who led multiple workshops on the theme, The Clinical Challenge of Working with Families in Today's Community.

The second conference held in December in Phoenix, Arizona was organized by Jeffrey Zeig, a Director of the Milton H. Erickson Foundation, and is reported by Miriam Cohen, a resident psychiatrist at Good Samaritan Hospital, who participated in the conference. Keynote speakers Jay Haley and Carl Whitaker led a large faculty presenting over 50 papers in a tribute to the life and work of Milton H. Erickson. Of special interest to our readers is the application of Erickson's ideas to family treatment. Haley has written widely on this, and Leveton and Lustig among others presented their understanding and application of Ericksonian principles.     

James hillman (1926-2011)

Presents an obituary for James Hillman. James Hillman, the third child of Madeline and Julian Hillman, died of metastatic bone cancer at his home in Thompson, Connecticut, on October 27, 2011. The parent of "archetypal psychology," he was born on April 12, 1926, at the Breakers, a then-opulent hotel founded by his family that overlooked the boardwalk and beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey. With an extensive footing in the classics and classical humanism, Jim established the foundations for his emerging archetypal psychology. With archetypal psychology, he was to move away from a dependence on the concept of a personal ego in favor of larger sources that relied on his notion of variegated identity. He proposed a profusion of mythical images that emerge under the rubric of "soul." Soul stands as an appellation indicating a deepening of psychic events, such as when dreams, chaos, and "pathologizing" (the struggles of imagination) are most experienced. For Hillman, psychology could not be taken as a separate discipline isolated from mythology, literature, art, philosophy, politics, religion, natural science, and the ordinary affairs of individuals. Hillman envisioned archetypes as processes that bear evidence to personal suffering and, in so doing, prompt the expansion of compassion. In 1975, Jim was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his book Re-Visioning Psychology (Harper & Row). In addition to many other citations, Jim had the high honor in 2001 of receiving the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The Moral Power of Jim: A Mencian Reading of Huckleberry Finn

This paper examines the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the light of the early Confucian thinker Mencius, arguing in essence that Mencian theories of moral development and self-cultivation can help us to recover the moral significance of Twain's novel. Although ‘ethical criticisms’ of Huckleberry Finn share a long history, I argue that most interpretations have failed to appreciate the moral significance of Jim, either by focusing on the moral arc of Huck in isolation or by casting Jim in one-dimensional terms simply as a symbol or example of human dignity. By invoking the Mencian ideas of ‘moral power’ (de ), human goodness, and the virtues of sympathy and humaneness, this study attempts to bring into relief the many ways that Jim, particularly in his role as an exemplar, functions as an active force in the moral life of Huck. It is hoped that this revised Mencian reading of Huckleberry Finn can restore the moral center of the novel and contribute to the growing discussion on the virtues in moral education.     

Joseph Henderson A tribute

Joseph Henderson has been on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Analytical Psychology since its inception in 1955. He will be 100 years old this year and this, with the bibliography of his publications over the past quarter century that follows, is the Journal's tribute to him for all his contributions .     

The search for an effective clinical behavior analysis: the nonlinear thinking of Israel goldiamond

This paper has two purposes; the first is to reintroduce Goldiamond's constructional approach to clinical behavior analysis and to the field of behavior analysis as a whole, which, unfortunately, remains largely unaware of his nonlinear functional analysis and its implications. The approach is not simply a set of clinical techniques; instead it describes how basic, applied, and formal analyses may intersect to provide behavior-analytic solutions where the emphasis is on consequential selection. The paper takes the reader through a cumulative series of explorations, discoveries, and insights that hopefully brings the reader into contact with the power and comprehensiveness of Goldiamond's approach, and leads to an investigation of the original works cited. The second purpose is to provide the context of a life of scientific discovery that attempts to elucidate the variables and events that informed one of the most extraordinary scientific journeys in the history of behavior analysis, and expose the reader (especially young ones) to the exciting process of discovery followed by one of the field's most brilliant thinkers. One may perhaps consider this article a tribute to Goldiamond and his work, but the tribute is really to the process of scientific discovery over a professional lifetime.     

Ideal point discriminant analysis

A new method of multiple discriminant analysis was developed that allows a mixture of continuous and discrete predictors. The method can be justified under a wide class of distributional assumptions on the predictor variables. The method can also handle three different sampling situations, conditional, joint and separate. In this method both subjects (cases or any other sampling units) and criterion groups are represented as points in a multidimensional euclidean space. The probability of a particular subject belonging to a particular criterion group is stated as a decreasing function of the distance between the corresponding points. A maximum likelihood estimation procedure was developed and implemented in the form of a FORTRAN program. Detailed analyses of two real data sets were reported to demonstrate various advantages of the proposed method. These advantages mostly derive from model evaluation capabilities based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC).The work reported in this paper has been supported by Grant A6394 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and by a leave grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to the first author. Portions of this study were conducted while the first author was at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Tokyo on leave from McGill University. He would like to express his gratitude to members of the Institute for their hospitality. Thanks are also due to T. Komazawa at the Institute for letting us use his data, to W. J. Krzanowski at the University of Reading for providing us with Armitage, McPherson, and Copas' data, and to Don Ramirez, Jim Ramsay and Stan Sclove for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.