Multimedia: where are we now and where do we go from here?

This paper comments on the current state and future role of computer-based multimedia in psychology instruction. It includes practical tips on getting started with successful multimedia production. It also introduces a new World-Wide Web site archiving this information as well as other useful multimedia production and teaching resources.     

Research on calling: What have we learned and where are we going?

Work as a calling is an emerging concept for scholars across a variety of psychological disciplines. In the current paper, the extant literature on calling is reviewed, showcasing its salience among college student and adult populations and highlighting consistent links between perceiving a calling and heightened levels of career maturity, career commitment, work meaning, job satisfaction, life meaning, and life satisfaction. These links appear most robust when individuals are actually living out their calling at work. Seven suggestions are proposed for future researchers to better understand what it means to have and live a calling: developing a stronger conceptual understanding, collecting more longitudinal data, studying more diverse cultural groups, focusing on behavioral outcomes, examining the dark side of a calling, building theory, and testing interventions. It is hoped that the promising research base and vast areas of potential growth will continue to make the study of calling attractive to scholars across psychological disciplines.     

When and where do we apply what we learn? A taxonomy for far transfer

Despite a century's worth of research, arguments surrounding the question of whether far transfer occurs have made little progress toward resolution. The authors argue the reason for this confusion is a failure to specify various dimensions along which transfer can occur, resulting in comparisons of "apples and oranges." They provide a framework that describes 9 relevant dimensions and show that the literature can productively be classified along these dimensions, with each study situated at the intersection of various dimensions. Estimation of a single effect size for far transfer is misguided in view of this complexity. The past 100 years of research shows that evidence for transfer under some conditions is substantial, but critical conditions for many key questions are untested.     

A decade of infant neuroimaging research: What have we learned and where are we going?

The past decade has seen the emergence of neuroimaging studies of infant populations. Incorporating imaging has resulted in invaluable insights about neurodevelopment at the start of life. However, little has been enquired of the experimental specifications and study characteristics of typical findings. This review systematically screened empirical studies that used electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on infants (max. age of 24 months). From more than 21,000 publications, a total of 710 records were included for analyses. With the exception of EEG studies, infant studies with MEG, fNIRS, and fMRI were most often conducted around birth and at 12 months. The vast majority of infant studies came from North America, with very few studies conducted in Africa, certain parts of South America, and Southeast Asia. Finally, longitudinal neuroimaging studies were inclined to adopt EEG, followed by fMRI, fNIRS, and MEG. These results show that there is compelling need for studies with larger sample sizes, studies investigating a broader range of infant developmental periods, and studies from under- and less-developed regions in the world. Addressing these shortcomings in the future will provide a more representative and accurate understanding of neurodevelopment in infancy.     

Science, ethnicity, and bias: where have we gone wrong?

The quality, quantity, and funding of ethnic minority research have been inadequate. One factor that has contributed to this inadequacy is the practice of scientific psychology. Although principles of psychological science involve internal and external validity, in practice psychology emphasizes internal validity in research studies. Because many psychological principles and measures have not been cross-validated with different populations, those conducting ethnic minority research often have a more difficult time demonstrating rigorous internal validity. Thus, psychology's overemphasis of internal as opposed to external validity has differentially hindered the development of ethnic minority research. To develop stronger research knowledge on ethnic minority groups, it is important that (a) all research studies address external validity issues and explicitly specify the populations to which the findings are applicable; (b) different research approaches, including the use of qualitative and ethnographic methods, be appreciated; and (c) the psychological meaning of ethnicity or race be examined in ethnic comparisons.     

Intraindividual models of employee well-being: What have we learned and where do we go from here?

As societal concern shifts from financial survival towards quality of life issues, both in and outside of the workplace, scholarly interest in employee well-being too has risen greatly in recent years. This greater attention to the antecedents and outcomes of employee well-being, such as job satisfaction, work engagement, and job burnout amongst others, is reflected in the proliferation of theories, constructs, and studies seeking to describe and explain why employees flourish or become exhausted at work, and the effect of employee well-being on individual behaviours and the organization at large. In this article, we provide a selective review of the current state of research in employee well-being, as well as key theories that have been employed in its study, with the aim of providing a critical assessment of the current state of employee well-being research as well as suggest future directions for the field. In particular, we discuss how research adopting intraindividual perspectives in the study of employee well-being can not only add value to our understanding of well-being but also complement the findings from between-individual studies, and offer suggestions for the development of a comprehensive theoretical model that integrates the two perspectives.     

Family therapy and systemic practice with older people: where are we now?

Older people are becoming an increasingly significant group as demographic and cultural change impacts on their roles within the family and society. In this article we consider how family therapy and systemic practice with older people has developed over the past ten years from the early foundations identified by Richardson et al . in 1994. Although older people face particular challenges, themes such as social constructionism, attachment and narrative, familiar to therapists working with people earlier in the life cycle, have also been influential in work in this field. These developments have resulted in increasing recognition of the relevance of systemic practice in older people's services, but significant challenges remain.     

Personal selling and the purchasing function: where do we go from here?

The business-to-business selling function has changed over the years, with more informed and demanding buyers, prompting firms to move toward a more consultative, solution-selling approach. While these changes have been the focus of extensive research in the personal selling and sales management domain, the customer side of the interaction dyad requires more examination. Even within the context of the customer side, insufficient attention has been paid to the purchasing function in business-to-business (B2B) selling research. Given the increased importance in customer organizations of the purchasing function, this article presents a literature review that highlights the purchasing function's personal selling and sales management needs and argues that, as the purchasing function becomes more important and its needs evolve, personal selling and sales strategies also need to evolve. The article highlights areas for future research in this domain.     

Social cognitive neuroscience: where are we heading?

Humans crave the company of others and suffer profoundly if temporarily isolated from society. Much of the brain must have evolved to deal with social communication and we are increasingly learning more about the neurophysiological basis of social cognition. Here, we explore some of the reasons why social cognitive neuroscience is captivating the interest of many researchers. We focus on its future, and what we believe are priority areas for further research.     

Preventing drug abuse: where are we now?

Counselors in many settings are involved in the development and implementation of drug abuse prevention programs. It is therefore essential that counselors be as informed as possible about the characteristics of drug abusers and about the drug abuse prevention programs that seem to hold some promise of being effective. This article provides some of this information by examining the research literature and extracting from it the common themes that have meaning for counselors in almost any population.     

Developing the ‘Religiate’ primary RE teacher: where are we starting from and how do we get there?

Delegates at the 2003 AULRE conference were asked to consider the features of a ‘religiate’ pupil, that is, what would we expect of pupils leaving school with a good religious education. This prompted a consideration of how far trainee primary teachers on a one‐year PGCE programme could be considered ‘religiate’. In the following article the findings of an investigation into the starting points of these trainees at the beginning of their Religious Education course are discussed.     

Are we born and do we die?

The stranglehold on our imagination by the mind-body dualisms that permeate the culture is such that most people seem to suppose that "body" and "soul" name distinct and separable entities. Resisting such dualisms in favour of an old-fashioned Aristotelean view of the soul as the form of the body, this essay considers two questions: do human parents produce human beings, and do human beings die? The doctrine of the special creation of the individual soul seems to require us to answer the first question in the negative because, according to this doctrine, parents only produce matter for the God-given soul to form. As to the second, many people seem to suppose that human beings do not die, only their bodies do. Arguing against the view that immortality is a natural property of human minds, the essay suggests (with the help of Joseph Ratzinger) that, whether we speak of "immortality" or of "resurrection", life from death is neither nature, nor achievement, but gift.     

Ethics review of social, behavioral, and economic research: where should we go from here?

It is not unusual for researchers to complain about institutional review board (IRB) oversight, but social scientists have a unique set of objections to the work of ethics committees. In an effort to better understand the problems associated with ethics review of social, behavioral, and economic sciences (SBES) research, this article examinees 3 different aspects of research ethics committees: (a) the composition of review boards; (b) the guidelines used by these boards to review SBES--and in particular, behavioral health--research; and (c) the actual deliberations of IRBs. The article concludes with recommendations for changes in the review process and with suggestions for filling the gaps in knowledge about the way IRBs work.