Commentary: The past and present of the future

Recent research on children's thinking about the future has taken multiple directions, many of which are illustrated in the contributions to this special issue. In this commentary the topic is discussed in the context of research on children's understanding of time, and some of the adaptive challenges of thinking about the future are considered. The studies in this issue show the emergence of some components of thinking about the future in early childhood. More research will be needed to illuminate abilities acquired at later ages and the representations and processes underlying humans’ thinking about the future.     

Psychoneuroimmunology: past, present, and future

Provides a brief overview of the history and current status of behavioral immunology research, as well as speculation on likely future directions, and suggests that the field may have broad implications for basic biological sciences and medicine. In addition, the field has clear relevance for health psychology; its relevance to actual health outcomes, however, is not yet known.     

Inhibitory control over the present and the past

From the perspective of the Hasher, Zacks, and May (1999) inhibitory framework, optimal performance occurs only when there is control over nonrelevant information. Relative to a current, goal-directed task, there are at least two potential sources of nonrelevant information that need to be controlled. The first is no longer relevant information. Such information would include, for example, a previous topic of conversation, or, in our work, a previous list of materials presented for study and recall. The second source of nonrelevant information is currently present (in thought or in the world) stimuli that are not relevant to the task at hand. Inhibitory processes are critical to the effective control of both sources of information?the no longer relevant past and the irrelevant present. If inhibitory processes are inefficient, irrelevant information from both the past and the present will disrupt performance on the current task. We illustrate this with studies showing the role of irrelevant information in reducing the working memory capacity of older adults and in slowing them down as they do even reasonably simple tasks.     

Pastoral research: past, present, and future

In healthcare environments of excellence, clinically trained chaplains are valued members of the medical treatment team. There are skills and values they hold in common with medicine and allied health disciplines: enhancing the health and well-being of the patient as a unity of body, mind, and spirit within a unique family and cultural system. This article examines the past, present, and future of pastoral research, including the chaplain's moral imperative to examine practice and to share what is found.     

A matter of time: actual time and the production of the past

In psychoanalytic theory, space metaphors are frequently used to describe the psychic apparatus. As for time, it is traditionally invoked under the heading of timelessness of the unconscious, more aptly described as the resistance of the repressed to wearing away with time. This paper examines how the insertion of time into psychic events and structural differentiation form a single process. After looking into the parallelism between phenomenological and psychoanalytic views of time and differentiation, the author draws a distinction between two time categories: chronological versus actual. A clinical example is presented.     

Change blindness: past, present, and future

Change blindness is the striking failure to see large changes that normally would be noticed easily. Over the past decade this phenomenon has greatly contributed to our understanding of attention, perception, and even consciousness. The surprising extent of change blindness explains its broad appeal, but its counterintuitive nature has also engendered confusions about the kinds of inferences that legitimately follow from it. Here we discuss the legitimate and the erroneous inferences that have been drawn, and offer a set of requirements to help separate them. In doing so, we clarify the genuine contributions of change blindness research to our understanding of visual perception and awareness, and provide a glimpse of some ways in which change blindness might shape future research.     

Body image: past, present, and future

This brief editorial article introduces the new scientific journal, Body Image: An International Journal of Research, and describes its rationale and mission in relation to the history and future of the study of body image and human appearance.     

Guidance in the United Kingdom: past, present and future

The turn of the century is an apposite time to review the development of guidance in the United Kingdom. The concept of guidance, in the terms in which it is now understood, is very much a 20th-century notion. It draws on two distinct but related traditions: the development of the practice of career guidance; and the development of guidance as an educational concept. The history of these two developments, and the relationship between them, are briefly outlined. Some of the conceptual issues they raise are examined, including the important but somewhat problematic interface with counselling. Challenges for guidance in the new millennium are discussed, in relation both to policy and practice and to theory and research.     

Counselling in the United Kingdom: past, present and future

We chart the development of counselling in Britain since the Second World War through to the present and speculate about possible directions counselling may take in the future. Our major, but not exclusive, focus is on counselling as a developing profession and the particular role that the British Association for Counselling has played in this development. To this end, we consider some of the professional issues that have preoccupied practitioners in the field and those that may do so in the future. Thus, amongst others, we consider the relationship between counselling and psychotherapy, the costs and benefits of counselling's increasing visibility in British society, the role that supervision has come to play in the maintenance of professional standards, the debate that has surrounded the issue of counsellor accreditation/registration, the development of standards and ethics and the tension that exists between the relational and technical aspects of counselling. Counselling does not exist in a vacuum, and this is seen most strikingly in the speculations that we make about future developments of counselling. Thus, for example, we argue that counselling will have to grapple with the increasing emphasis that society places on the accountability of human services and with the inexorable progress occurring in the area of technological development. We note that counselling's response to these significant trends will have to be made against the backdrop of the continuing dissolution of barriers between previously distinct areas of human knowledge .     

Psychotherapy in the United Kingdom: past, present and future

The 20th century, perhaps 'the age of Freud', has seen the development and growth of psychological therapies. The first half of the century was virtually the province of the psychoanalytic approaches, with the last three decades marking the flowering of many other approaches, and a gradual and general rapprochement between nearly all the major therapies. This history is traced, identifying the major players, including behaviour therapy and humanistic therapies challenging the initially dominant model. The rapid expansion in practitioners and training courses has led to questions of organisation, registration, and relationship between the therapies. The development of UKCP and BCP is examined, examining the size of the constituent elements within these major groupings, their relationship to each other and to counselling and the Independent Practitioners Network. Other developments such as psychotherapeutic studies within universities and the subsequent linking of some psychotherapy trainings to academic qualifications are referred to, while the relationship of British psychotherapy to the European and world scene is briefly described before the author hazards a prediction that it is integrative psychotherapy that will probably expand most in the new century, with counselling asserting its right to be an equal partner in the therapeutic endeavour.     

Early puberty in African-American girls: nutrition past and present

This study focused on nutrition and the changes in food intake over time to explain the onset of early pubertal signs in African-American girls. The daily nutritional intake of two diametrically opposite generations of African-American females was compared. The first group included 20 girls between the ages of 5 and 7 and the second group included 28 women between the ages of 70 and 85. The older African-American women were asked to remember the meals they had when they were young. Results revealed significant differences in terms of both quantity and quality of food consumed. Specifically, the women reported eating two meals a day when they were young while the girls reported eating at least three meals. Also, for breakfast, the girls consumed significantly more milk and fruits than did the women. For lunch, the girls consumed significantly more bread and grains, vegetables, meat, and milk than did the women. For dinner, the women consumed significantly more bread and grains. Thus, significant differences between the nutrition of African-American girls about 60 to 70 years ago and those of today were revealed. Implications of these findings are discussed.