Counselling psychology in the United States

Counseling psychology (CP) emerged in the US as the result of the convergence of a number of trends in early applied psychology, a number of social factors, as well as changes in the organizational structure of the American Psychological Association. We offer an overview of the history of counseling psychology in the US, focusing on key events that have helped establish and shape the profession. Struggles over the definition of CP as a specialty and its relations with clinical psychology and professional counseling are discussed, as are matters related to the licensing of CP practitioners, and the profession’s relationships with counseling-related professional organizations. The educational and professional preparation of CPs, the profession’s core values that affect both training in and the practice of counseling psychology, and the settings in which CPs work are briefly described. We close with a discussion of several of the challenges facing CP as it is organized and institutionalized in the US.     

Gestalt in social psychology

Summary Citations superficially suggest that the relationship between Gestalt theory and contemporary social psychology is hardly recognizable if we disregard the occasional homage to Kurt Lewin. Neither Gestalt nor field theory belongs to the present pool of social-psychological theories. On the other hand, it can be shown that basic concepts of Gestalt theory have survived under various names and are still of central importance. The author outlines a model of theory sedimentation according to which Gestalt theory, after a brief period of impact on mainstream social psychology has, by sedimentation, become an implicit theory which still feeds explicit models and theories in contemporary social psychology.     

Gestalt psychology in Italy

Graz gestalt psychology was introduced into Italy after World War I with Vittorio Benussi's emigration to Padua. His earliest adherent, Cesare Musatti, defended Graz theory, but after Benussi's premature death became an adherent of the Berlin gestalt psychology of Wertheimer-K?hler-Koffka. He trained his two most important students, Fabio Metelli and Gaetano Kanizsa, in orthodox Berlin theory. They established rigid "schools" in Padua and Trieste. The structure of Italian academics allowed for such strict orthodoxy, quite unlike the situation in America, where scientific objectivity mitigated against schools. In the 1960s, some of the students of Metelli and Kanizsa (above all Bozzi) initiated a realist movement-felt in Kanizsa's late work-that was quite independent of that of J. J. Gibson. Finally, more recently, Benussi and Graz theorizing have been embraced again, sentimentally, as a predecedent to Kanizsa-Bozzi.     

Gestalt psychology: the forgotten paradigm in abnormal psychology

Gestalt views of psychopathology are almost completely ignored in mainstream psychology and psychiatry. However, a review of available evidence indicates a remarkable consistency between these views and current data from experimental psychopathology and cognitive neuroscience. This consistency is especially pronounced in the area of schizophrenia. In addition, there is a convergence of cognitive and neurobiological evidence regarding the validity of early Gestalt views of both normal brain-behavior relationships and disordered ones, as in schizophrenia. This article reviews some contributions of Gestalt psychology regarding schizophrenia and examines these views in light of more recent findings from cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and experimental psychopathology. We conclude that Gestalt theory is a viable theoretical framework from which to understand schizophrenia. Specifically, it appears that a breakdown of Gestalt organizational processes may characterize both the cognitive and the brain processes in schizophrenia.     

Gestalt psychology in the soviet union

Summary The influence of the Berlin school of Gestalt psychology on Soviet psychology in the period before the reactological debate (1931) is analyzed. A review of the channels of communication (congresses personal visits, translations, review papers) shows that Soviet psychologists were well informed about Gestalt psychology, and that the members of L.S. Vygotskij's circle were the main promotors of Gestalt ideas in the Soviet Union. Gestalt psychology was welcomed as a potential ally in the construction of a Marxist psychology first outlined by K.N. Kornilov. The initial enthusiasm for Gestalt psychology was stimulated by the system concept as developed by Wolfgang Köhler, and A.R. Luria made an attempt to demonstrate the compatibility between Köhler's theory and some general methodological implications of dialectical materialism. Later on, the focus of interest shifted to Köhler's investigations of intelligent behavior in apes, which formed part of the empirical base of the historico-cultural theory of mental development. The impact of Gestalt ideas served an important function in the struggle against mechanistic theories of behavior which were at that time predominant in Soviet psychology.Thanks are due to Josef Broek and Sonia Argyle, who have kindly agreed to polish my English. The remaining teutonisms are not their fault. All translations from Russian or German sources were done by the author. Please address offprint requests to Eckart Scheerer, Universität Oldenburg, FB 1 - Psychologie, Birkenweg 3, 2900 Oldenburg, Federal Republic of Germany     

Reflections on unethical experiments and the beginnings of bioethics in the United States

The author offers personal reflections on the development of research ethics in the United States, primarily during the 1960s. He explores the efforts of the pioneers in the field of human experimentation ethics to raise and discuss issues such as the value conflict between the acquisition of knowledge and respect for the autonomy of research subjects and the crucial importance of disclosure in the informed consent process.     

History of a historian of psychology in the United States

This article focuses on the author's activities in the United States relating to the history of psychology. It does not deal with his involvement in applied psychology in Europe (1937-1939), and it only touches on research on malnutrition and behavior, illumination and performance, and aging carried out in the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene at the University of Minnesota (1941-1958). Activities bearing on the history of psychology dominated the years spent at Lehigh University (1959-1979) and the years of retirement (1979-present). The principal events include organizing the first scientific meeting of the American Psychological Association's Division 26, History of Psychology (1966); two summer institutes on the history of psychology (1968, 1971); the editing of a historically oriented volume on psychology in the USSR (1972) and of R.I. Watson's papers on the history of psychology (1977); organizing and editing a volume containing 6 monographs on the history of psychology in the United States (1984); and editing a volume concerned with international research during the years 1919-1981 on malnutrition and behavior.     

Contributions of American mental philosophers to psychology in the United States

Professors of mental philosophy who taught and wrote textbooks in colleges and universities in the United States before the Civil War contributed significantly to the development of the new psychology that replaced mental philosophy in the last quarter of the 19th century. Their contributions have been neglected in textbooks on the history of psychology, even those devoted to the history of psychology in the United States. These mental philosophers eased the transition to, and influenced the nature of, the new psychology in the United States by establishing a place in the curriculum for mental philosophy that the new psychology came to occupy; by identifying the topics for laboratory methods to address; by pursuing an empirical, inductive, scientific approach to the study of the mind; and by their tradition of functional analysis that came to characterize psychology in the United States.     

The anticipated future of counselling psychology in the United States: A Delphi poll

A Delphi poll of the institutional members of the Council of Counselling Psychology Training Programmes in the United States revealed anticipations regarding the future of the speciality in relation to three broad areas of contemporary concern. These included the speciality's anticipated core identity, the future role of science and research training in the speciality, and its probable developments in relation to professional training. In general, a commitment to cultural diversity and life-span development occupied pre-eminent positions in relation to the speciality's anticipated identity. Significant attention to methodological diversity and scientific and professional reform were also noted within the context of continuing challenges to the speciality's identity and its future.     

Doctoral school psychology program graduates in the United States: The first seventeen years

Graduates of all known doctoral school psychology programs in the United States from the inception of school programs in 1953 through 1970 were identified and sent survey forms to determine their background, professional development and interests, and their concerns about training. Findings were based on a 78% return rate. The conclusion reached is that separate doctoral programs in school psychology appear at present to be an efficacious way to ensure orientation, commitment, and training for the application of psychology to school problems.     

Parallel lives: Community psychology in Latin America and the United States

Comparing the history of community psychology as it developed in the U.S. during the 1960s with the community psychology that developed 10 years later in Latin America, one is reminded of the title of Plutarch’s masterpice,Parallel Lives. Although there was very little contact or communication between the first community psychologists in these regions, very similar principles and orientations evolved. These similarities are particularly striking given the many ways in which the U.S. and Latin American contexts and histories differ. Since most readers are expected to be familiar with the history of community psychology as it developed in the U.S., this paper focuses primarily on the development of community psychology in Latin America in order to highlight areas of convergence as well as divergence from the U.S. experience. This paper is based on an address presented at the Fourth Biennial Conference, Society for Community Research and Action, Division 27 of the American Psychological Association, William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1993. The author acknowledges the valuable help received from J. R. Newbrough and from the referees in the revision of this paper.