Social networks,information-seeking,and the utilization of services

Voluntary participation by low-income and/ar high-risk populations in prevention-oriented human service programs is minimal and dropout rates are high. Examination of social networks as they relate to information-seeking and utilization behavior may provide a source of understanding. Two investigations are reported. The results of Study 1 indicate that high-risk referred women with denser networks attended fewer parent group sessions than did those whose networks were less dense and that the more contact a woman had with her kin, the fewer parent group sessions she attended. The results of Study 2 indicate that in a sample of low-income women participating in a supplementary food program, those women whose networks were characterized by lower density and less frequent kin contact were more likely to pursue professional child-rearing information and advice than women in denser, more kin-involved networks. In addition, a significant interaction between one's sense of competence as a parent and the structure of one's network was found to determine the overall frequency of information seeking.     

When Festinger Fails: Prophecy and the Watch Tower

Within its history, the Watch Tower has often set dates for the coming of Christ's millennial reign. The ability of Jehovah's Witnesses to endure the failure of these interpretations of Biblical prophecy reveals the power of the Watch Tower to withstand what would seem to be fatal challenges to its system of belief. In what has become a classic study, the social psychologist Leon Festinger has argued that such disconfirmations of prophecy lead only to deepened conviction and increased proselytism to persuade others that the original belief was correct. Applying Festinger's hypothesis to the prophetic speculation of the Watch Tower, 1 argue that his model fails to recognize how complex organizations and systems of belief shape responses to disconfirmed prophecy. Indeed, the history of Jehovah's Witnesses demonstrates that organizational structure and ideology constitute crucial variables for any analysis of reaction to prophetic failure. It is the very power of the Watch Tower as a millenarian movement that allows not only the rationalization of disconfirmation but the retrospective denial of the prophecy itself.     

Recognition of names of eminent psychologists

Faculty members, graduate students, undergraduate majors, and introductory psychology students checked those names they recognized in the list of 228 deceased psychologists, rated for eminence, provided by Annin, Boring, and Watson. Mean percentage recognition was less than 50% for the 128 American psychologists, and less than 25% for the 100 foreign psychologists, by the faculty subjects. The other three groups of subjects gave even lower recognition scores. Recognition was probably also influenced by recency; median year of death of the American psychologists was 1955, of the foreign psychologists, 1943. High recognition (defined as recognition by 80% or more of the faculty group) was achieved by only 34 psychologists, almost all of them American. These highly recognized psychologists also had high eminence ratings, but there was an equal number of psychologists with high eminence ratings that were poorly recognized.     

DO RESEARCH REPORTS IN MAINSTREAM FEMINIST PSYCHOLOGY JOURNALS REFLECT FEMINIST VALUES?

Core values in feminist approaches to psychological research include attention to the relationship between scientists and citizens. But traditional methodological norms dictate that investigators restrict citizens' participation in research and prescribe an impersonal, decontextualized writing style in journal reports. Content analysis of 228 research articles in two journals associated with feminist psychology—the Psychology of Women Quarterly and Sex Roles, spanning the journals'first decade—showed that authors typically provided minimal or no information about such relationship dimensions as level of participation, informed consent, and feedback. The depersonalized writing style generally employed gives the impression that some feminist psychologists have adopted androcentric standards for the research relationship. Developing appropriate models for both research methods and report writing is essential for feminist researchers to resolve the apparent contradiction between ideals and behavior. But certain institutional obstacles need to be overcome for the resolution to occur.     

Social psychological research in The Netherlands, 1980-1988

This paper contains an investigation about research of Dutch social psychologists. Based on reported publications two types of analyses were performed. The reported publications were categorized by means of a topic-inventory proposed by Fisch and Daniel (1982), which enabled us to compare Dutch trends with developments in Europe and the U. S.A. Moreover, by means of bibliometric analyses publications of Dutch social psychologists were related to data obtained by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Several trends were observed and discussed.     

Étude de la concordance des diagnostics psychiatriques et psychologiques dans un échantillon de 505 criminels

Our focus is to study how frequently psychologists and psychiatrists make diagnoses in forensic reports, whether structural or nosographic, in relation to judicial expertise. Our goal is thus to assess the conformability ratio between psychologists and psychiatrists for both diagnoses. To do so, we studied the level of inter-observer agreement for the diagnoses of 505 male criminals made in France by expert psychologists and psychiatrists between 1990 and 2003. The measurement of agreement was done with the Kappa coefficient. The inter-observer agreement (psychiatrics versus psychologists) shows a 0.55 to 0.71 variation for the structural diagnoses and 0.51 to 0.89 for the nosographic diagnoses.Furthermore, the results also show a high level of agreement between the psychiatrists and psychologists for not making diagnoses, whether structural (k = 0.66) or nosographic (k = 0.73). Hence, we provide specific advice to improve the consistency of expert diagnoses for criminals in France.     

Discrimination of a low‐status outgroup: the role of ingroup threat

In the present study it was predicted that a threat to the ingroup by a high‐status outgroup would lead its members to increase the level of derogation of a lower‐status outgroup. Two experimental groups of psychologists were informed about the opinions (positive or negative) allegedly held by medical doctors regarding clinical psychologists whereas participants in the control condition did not receive any feedback. Later, all participants were asked to judge psychologists, social workers (low‐status outgroup), and medical doctors along professional and personality dimensions. As predicted, compared to participants in the positive feedback and in the control conditions, negative feedback participants increased derogation toward social workers but not toward medical doctors along the professional traits relevant to the feedback. Results are interpreted in the context of Downward Comparison Theory (Wills, 1981 ). Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

For love or money? The saga of Korean women who provided eggs for embryonic stem cell research

In 2004 and 2005, Woo-Suk Hwang achieved international stardom with publications in Science reporting on successful research involving the creation of stem cells from cloned human embryos. The wonder and success all began to unravel, however, when serious ethical concerns were raised about the source of the eggs for this research. When the egg scandal had completely unfolded, it turned out that many of the women who provided eggs for stem cell research had not provided valid consents and that nearly 75% of the women egg providers had received cash or in-kind payments. Among those who did not receive direct benefits, some cited patriotism as their reason for participating in embryonic stem cell research, hence the question “for love or money?”—namely, patriotism versus payment. This paper summarizes the Hwang debacle with particular attention to the egg scandal and ends with some preliminary thoughts on patriotism as a motive for research participation.     

Practicing school psychologists' perceived role in prevention of school violence

School psychologists have been called upon to take a leadership role in school-violence prevention, but little is known about their involvement in this issue, especially in states where school shootings have occurred. The current study surveyed 258 Michigan school psychologists about their role in prevention of school violence. Analysis suggested respondents felt prepared to address violence prevention but do not have a leadership role and are not sought for advice about prevention. The number of annual special education evaluations was significantly associated with frequency of being sought for advice on violence prevention but was not related to perceptions of leadership or preparedness. Modest relationships were noted between feeling prepared, knowledge of risk factors, and self-perceptions of a leadership role. Suggestions for research are included.     

Practical Computer Ethics (Book)

Do continuing education (CE) mandates increase participation in ethics programs and enhance their perceived outcomes? In a study of 5,198 North American psychologists, significant differences were found between mandated and nonmandated psychologists in relation to their participation in ethics programs but not in the perceived outcomes associated with those trainings. Although 64.3% of those psychologists operating under ethics mandates reported completing at least one ethics training within the previous year, only 40.7% of those without such mandates reported doing likewise. Overall, both groups tended to view their ethics training quite favorably in relation to its perceived outcomes, though they differed in relation to their endorsement of CE mandates. Results are discussed in relation to the ongoing development of evidence-based CE and its role in developing critical professional competencies.     

纸质与视频补充材料对手术知情同意体验的影响：以腹腔镜胆囊切除手术为例

知情同意书在医患沟通中起着间接传递信息的重要作用。以159名大学生为被试,通过操纵不同的知情同意方式,考察了纸质或视频补充信息对患者知情同意满意度、理解程度以及患者信息需求的满足程度影响。结果发现,接受纸质补充知情同意或视频补充知情同意的被试对知情同意过程的满意度、对手术信息的理解程度与知情同意信息需求的满足程度显著高于接受普通知情同意的被试。同时,纸质补充知情同意使得“治疗信息需求的满足程度”最高。这表明,纸质补充知情同意更能满足患者对治疗信息的需求。     

Reevaluating the potency of the memory conformity effect

Witnesses sometimes report event details that are acquired solely from another witness. We reevaluated the potency of this memory conformity effect. After viewing a crime video, some participants learned about nonwitnessed details via discussion (dyad group), reading another participant’s report (read group), or watching another version of the video (both-video group). In Experiment 1, these participants often reported nonwitnessed details, but on a source-judgment test most details were attributed primarily to the actual source rather than to the video. In addition, the dyad group was not more likely than the read or both-video groups to report nonwitnessed details. Participants in Experiment 2 were explicitly discouraged from providing details that were remembered from the secondary source only. These postwarning instructions substantially reduced the memory conformity effect, and a dyad group was not more likely than a read group to report nonwitnessed details. Encouraging source monitoring at test can reduce the negative consequences of co-witness collaboration.     

Sport Psychology Foundations,Organizations, and Related Resources

SUMMARY

The purpose of this article is to introduce psychologists and counselors who work in schools to the field of applied sport psychology. We begin with a brief history of how applied sport psychology developed in North America and other parts of the world. Landmark events such as the development of conferences, professional organizations and scholarly publications are described. This is followed by a discussion of the breadth of services that are typically provided by sport psychologists. The third section examines some of the current issues related to the training of sport psychologists. The final section introduces the reader to organizations, journals, texts, and on-line resources so they may learn more about the theory, research, and practice of Sport psychology.     

Trauma‐Informed Care for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness: An Avenue for Community Psychology's Involvement in Community Mental Health

Individuals with serious mental illness are at particularly high risk for trauma; however, service environments with which they interact may not always be trauma‐informed. While community mental health and other human services settings are moving toward trauma‐informed care (TIC) service delivery, a variety of TIC frameworks exist without consensus regarding operationalization, thereby leading to challenges in implementation. TIC is principle‐driven and presents substantial overlap with community psychology values and competencies, including ecological frameworks, second‐order change, empowerment, and citizen participation. One way to address barriers to TIC implementation is to draw on the strengths of the field of community psychology. With a particular emphasis on the applicability of TIC to individuals with serious mental illness, this paper identifies key implementation issues and recommends future directions for community psychologists in clarifying the service framework, its adaptation to specific service contexts, and improving delivery through consultation and evaluation. Community psychologists may work with various disciplines involved in the TIC field to together promote a more conscious, actionable shift in service delivery.     

Discrepancy between human resource research and practice: Comparison of industrial/organisational psychologists and human resource practitioners' beliefs

There is a large and growing body of research to show that human resource (HR) practices affect individual performance, organisational productivity and organisational performance. Academic findings about effective HR practices, however, have not readily been adopted by practitioners. A variety of theoretical and practical explanations have been advanced about the research–practice gap. Research by Rynes, Colbert, and Brown (2002) suggested that the research–practice gap is due to a lack of knowledge, but the extent to which these findings apply to the Australian context is unknown. The sample consisted of 102 industrial/organisational (I/O) psychologists and 89 HR practitioners. The main aim of the present study was to replicate and extend the work of Rynes et al. by examining and comparing the knowledge of I/O psychologists and HR practitioners. It was found that overall I/O psychologists were better informed about HR research than HR practitioners; in particular, they were more knowledgeable about management practices and recruitment and selection. In both groups, of the five content areas examined (Management Practices; General Employment Practices; Training and Development; Recruitment and Selection; and Compensation and Benefits), the greatest gaps were in Recruitment and Selection.     

时间对犯罪隐藏信息记忆的影响

记录模拟犯罪者和阅读报纸后对案件知情的无辜者接受隐藏信息测试时的皮肤电活动,探讨时间对犯罪隐藏信息记忆的影响。结果发现：(1)延迟条件下,模拟犯罪组的再认率和皮肤电活动变化显著高于知情无辜组,但两组在立即条件下无差异;(2)知情无辜组在延迟条件下的甄别率显著低于立即条件下,而模拟犯罪者在两种条件下无差异。结果表明,延迟测试比立即测试更容易区分模拟犯罪组和知情无辜组;犯罪甄别率在延迟条件下减少,但也减少了知情无辜者被判断为犯罪者的风险。     

Are allies who we think they are?: A comparative analysis

Although dominant group allies have been increasingly studied by social psychologists interested in positive intergroup relations and the promotion of social justice, most of the existing research focuses on self‐identified allies or dominant group individuals who are engaging in social justice activities. Little comparative work has examined white allies who were specifically identified as such by people of color. Two studies assessed qualities associated with affirming attitudes (low prejudice, high internal motivation to respond without prejudice, allophilia, and awareness of privilege) and informed action (activism) expected to be distinctively characteristic of allies. Nominated white allies in Study 1 had lower prejudice and higher levels of internal motivation to respond without prejudice than nonnominated white participants; this was replicated in Study 2, which compared nominated “allies” and “friends.” In Study 2, nominated white allies rated themselves as lower on prejudice than nominated white friends. They also scored higher on internal motivation to respond without prejudice, understanding of white privilege, and activism than nominated white friends. There were no differences on self‐reported allophilia between the two groups. Allies were rated by the people of color who nominated them as higher on qualities of outgroup affirmation and informed action than were nominated friends. Limitations of and implications for these findings are discussed.     

Assessment of mothers' concerns about infants,toddlers, and preschoolers

Only recently has determining the child-rearing concerns of parents been considered an important research objective. Existing efforts have, for the most part, either employed small sample sizes or surveyed parents already in the process of seeking help or advice. It was, therefore, felt that additional, more representative data were needed. In the present study, 583 mothers with children aged 59 months or younger were surveyed regarding their concerns about their children's development. On the „Specific Needs Assessment Report”︁ (SNAR) (copyright © 1975, by Karl F. Riem, J. Jeffrey Crisco, and Kathy Willms), mothers rated their concerns for 60 developmental-behavioral items about their children's health, attending skills, problem behaviors, communication skills, motor skills, cognitive skills, self-help skills, and social skills. Mothers were most frequently concerned to a moderate or major degree about at least one item of the problem behavior category. For this category, parent-child management, crying-whining, and temper tantrums were the individual items of greatest concern. Mothers of girls more frequently indicated health concerns than mothers of boys. These results support those of previous investigations, which suggested the need for parent education programs to help parents manage their children.