Marital research in the 20th century and a research agenda for the 21st century

In this article we review the advances made in the 20th century in studying marriages. Progress moved from a self-report, personality-based approach to the study of interaction in the 1950s, following the advent of general systems theory. This shift led, beginning in the 1970s, to the rapid development of marital research using a multimethod approach. The development of more sophisticated observational measures in the 1970s followed theorizing about family process that was begun in the decade of the 1950s. New techniques for observation, particularly the study of affect and the merging of synchronized data streams using observational and self-report perceptual data, and the use of sequential and time-series analyses produced new understandings of process and power. Research in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s witnessed the realization of many secular changes in the American family, including the changing role of women, social science's discovery of violence and incest in the family, the beginning of the study of cultural variation in marriages, the expansion of the measurement of marital outcomes to include longevity, health, and physiology (including the immune system), and the study of comorbidities that accompany marital distress. A research agenda for the 21st century is then described.     

Psychometrics and psychometricians in the 20th and 21st centuries: how it was in the 20th century and how it is now

This article is based largely upon the author's invited address at the 113th annual convention of the American Psychological Convention, Washington, DC, as the 2005 recipient of the Samuel J. Messick Award bestowed by APA Division 5 and the Educational Testing Service. The author summarizes the growth of graduate training in psychometrics and quantitative psychology, in the years prior to and following the end of WWII. He then opines the steady decline in the training of psychometricians and quantitative psychologists beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the 20th century. Likely causes of the decline are inferred and prospects for strengthening the quantitative skills of doctorates are discussed, including recommendations for reversing the downward trend.     

20～21世纪之交的艺术史

在新世纪即将到来之际 ,欲完整透彻地说明 2 0世纪末期艺术史研究的状况似乎不太现实。我诚心向那些有意更进一步探究这个问题的朋友大力推荐多纳尔德·普莱茨奥斯最近所著的一本评论文选 ,它由牛津大学出版社出版 ,题为《艺术史的艺术》。这本书概览了自约翰·约阿希姆·温克尔曼开创了艺术史研究这一门专业以来 ,艺术史研究所沿循的主要方向 ,并且从18世纪中叶到 2 0世纪末期这一期间发表的文章中选出相应的代表性作品收入。在 2 0世纪 ,艺术史得到了迅猛发展。虽然我们的艺术史学科主要植根于 19世纪 ,但是随着大学里艺术史讲座的开展 ,…     

陛下,臣民们饿了!""叫他们吃符号!"20和21世纪的文学研究与语言学研究

固然,这个标题有些嬉笑之嫌.这样设计无非是为了引起人们的好奇和注意……它源于儿时玩的一个游戏,只是我忘了游戏的规则和玩法.一位虚构的君王冷漠无情,突然有所醒悟,便几乎复述了玛丽-托瓦内特的建议:如果臣民们饿了,扔给他们面包就是了.我把君主的这类漫画像看做反模式,用符号代替了面包.     

Windows on the 21st century

Behavior analysis is a cultural system of which the Association for Behavior Analysis is a component cultural system. As cultural systems, they are composed of interlocking behavioral contingencies that constitute their cultural practices. Critical to the survival of both cultural systems is the frequency of interaction with and the nature of the content of the behavioral contingencies composing those cultural practices. The strengths of behavior analysis as a cultural system include its disciplinary character and its worldwide community of scientists and practitioners; its ability to be integrated into a scientific worldview; its track record in providing effective solutions to problems of importance to society; and the high levels of intellect, competence, and commitment that are characteristic of its participants. Weaknesses of behavior analysis are its status as an academic orphan, its relatively small size and its underdeveloped professional identity, and a lack of sociopolitical sophistication among many of its members. Behavior analysis will need to maximize its strengths and mitigate its weaknesses if it is to take advantage of the many opportunities available for growth in the modern world.     

Antiepileptic drugs in the 21st century

During the past 10 years, there has been a welcome influx of novel agents for the treatment of epilepsy. Many show advantages compared to older agents, including better adverse effect profiles and lack of drug-drug interactions. The sheer number of agents now available makes distinction among them confusing at times. Agents differ in spectrum of action, pharmacokinetic profile (affecting dosing schedule and drug interactions), and titration time. This review highlights the differences between the various new agents and the more traditional antiseizure drugs. Evidence for the widespread use of these compounds outside their indication, particularly for diseases other than epilepsy, is reviewed as well.     

Personality disorders in the 21st century

The diagnosis and classification of personality disorders have come a long way since the beginning of the 20th century. Perhaps by this time next century, the diagnostic manual of mental disorders will be using a dimensional model of classification that will provide more reliable and meaningful points of demarcation between normal and abnormal personality functioning. This article offers suggestions for the form, content, and placement of such a dimensional model. The particular model emphasized herein is the five-factor model of personality functioning, but the optimal diagnostic system will probably involve an integration of alternative dimensional models.     

Representing Health and Illness: Thoughts for the 21st century

The on-going discussion about a new empiricism in the study of the medical humanities has lead to a misapprehension about the problems attendant to representing health and illness. The difficulty in understanding the politics of health and illness as well as the concomitant new aestheticism that has arisen concerning its representation demands a rethinking of these categories in the 21st century. Obesity can provide a model for the importance of this problem today.     

Height Psychology and challenges of the 21st century

The present article comments on Liu's target article while exploring the points of convergence and divergence of his Height Psychology with trends in non‐Asian psychology, and points to an area of further expansion demanded by the challenges of the 21st century, namely, climate change and intergroup conflict.     

Adapting human lifestyles for the 21st century

A number of ecological problems (e.g., global warming, ozone depletion, deforestation, acid rain) have been identified, which threaten to reduce the quality of human life in the 21st century. These problems are human produced, resulting primarily from over-population and over-consumption. Alterations in people's awareness, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors may stimulate changes in their political and economic systems, which in turn might foster the kind of lifestyle changes that could mitigate these ecological problems. Psychologists can play a role in helping individuals and systems advance toward the goal of becoming a sustainable society: one that satisfies its current needs without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations.     

ADHD treatment in the 21st century: pushing the envelope

Required for optimal intervention for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is evidence-based matching of child, treatment, and situation. The landmark Multimodal Treatment Study (MTA) of Children with ADHD documented the superiority of pharmacotherapy for the vast majority of children with ADHD. Although this study could not address the problem of the match directly, it is generating important leads for research on the use of psychosocial strategies to enhance the scope and durability of treatment gains while decreasing the risks attendant upon long-term use of medication. Given the inherent distinctions between pharmacological and psychosocial treatments, conclusive answers to questions about comparative efficacy will continue to elude scientist-practitioners. Needed next is research examining ways to improve outcomes beyond the effects of medication, using systematically tailored and sequenced psychosocial approaches and exploring new treatment targets, agents, and modalities. To illustrate, some emerging findings from an ongoing experience sampling study and implications for online therapy are discussed.     

Psychological testing and assessment in the 21st century.

As spin-offs of the current revolution in the cognitive and neurosciences, clinical neuropsychologists in the 21st century will be using biological tests of intelligence and cognition that record individual differences in brain functions at the neuromolecular, neurophysiologic, and neurochemical levels. Assessment of patients will focus more on better use of still intact functions, as well as rehabilitating or bypassing impaired functions, than on diagnosis, as is the focus today. Better developed successors to today's scales for assessing personal competency and adaptive behavior, as well as overall quality of life, also will be in wide use in clinical settings. With more normal individuals, use of new generations of paper-and-pencil inventories, as well as biological measures for assessing differences in interests, attitudes, personality styles, and predispositions, is predicted.     

Measurements in the future: beyond the 20th century

This article presents a brief history of psychometrics and the development in the USA shortly after the end of World War II of university graduate programs to educate and train psychometricians. Three decades later these programs in North America were on a steady decline. But, at the same time there was a surge in universities abroad in producing well-trained psychometricians, particularly in Western European countries, especially The Netherlands. Broad implications of the effect of this movement on psychological testing are suggested.     

Marriage in the 20th century: A feminist perspective

A defining feature of the 20th century in Western civilization was a profound change in the roles women play in both private and public life. The field of couple therapy was influenced by that change and, to a limited extent, participated in it. I will argue that the field has avoided fully embracing the principles of feminism that generated the social changes in gender and marital roles, settling instead for a more token acknowledgment that gender means something, without wanting to specify what that something is. In responding to the other articles in this issue, I make the case that the connection between gender and power in marriage needs to be more fully integrated, in the theory, research, and treatment of couples.