Participation in decision-making by staff in community mental health programs

Staff participation in decision-making was examined in 22 community mental health programs in Michigan. A questionnaire was completed by 164 practitioners employed at least half time. The response rate was 94%. For virtually every work-related decision examined, the practitioners wanted significantly greater participation in decision-making than they currently have. Also, those working in programs where practitioner participation was high reported greater job satisfaction, less role ambiguity, greater use of their skills, better communication among staff, and greater goal clarity and attainability. Practitioner participation was lowest in programs serving more disturbed, less successful populations, such as inpatient, mental retardation, and drug-abuse programs. Para-professional practitioners in all programs reported less participation in their jobs than professional practitioners. Finally, practitioners who typically interact more with clients also reported lower levels of participation.     

Career Aspirations of Adolescent Girls: Effects of Achievement Level,Grade, and Single-Sex School Environment

The career aspirations of high-achieving adolescent girls were explored by comparing them to the aspirations of adolescent boys as well as by looking at the influence of grade in school, achievement level, and an all-girls school environment. The participants' ideal and real career aspirations, scored in terms of prestige, were investigated via 2 sets of analyses , with coed (n = 704) and single-sex female (n = 494) adolescent samples. Results showed that high-achieving girls exceeded the aspirations of average-achieving girls and boys, and were the same as those of high-achieving boys. Gender and grade differences in ideal and real career choices over all achievement levels are also reported and discussed. Girls at single-sex schools had higher real career aspirations than did girls and boys at coed schools.     

Text Recycling in Scientific Writing

Science and Engineering Ethics - Text recycling, often called “self-plagiarism”, is the practice of reusing textual material from one’s prior documents in a new work. The practice...     

The Impact of Constructive Controversy on Moral Development

We examined the effects of a constructive controversy compared with individualistic learning on 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th‐grade students' (N = 56) moral development, ethical skills, academic achievement, and attitudes toward social interdependence. The results indicated that participating in constructive controversy (compared with individualistic learning) resulted in greater moral development (i.e., moral reasoning, moral motivation, moral character), greater ethical skills (i.e., perspective taking, perception of self as a moral person, rule orientation), higher academic achievement, and more positive attitudes toward competition. These results extend constructive controversy theory, as well as Piagetian and social interdependent theories. They also provide guidance as to how discussions of moral dilemmas and conflicts among students should be structured and conducted.     

The role of coping in the stress-strain relationship among senior police officers

In a large-scale study of senior police officers in Great Britain (Superintendent and Chief Superintendent ranks), the role of coping in the stress-strain relationship was explored. There was no indication of a direct impact of coping on physical well-being nor was there any evidence of a direct effect on job satisfaction, but coping was related to mental health. Coping also exhibited a direct relationship to subjectively perceived job stress. Moreover, coping moderated the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction, but a buffering influence was not observed on the job satisfaction-health linkages. Job satisfaction had a direct impact on both mental and physical ill-health (showing high satisfaction was associated with superior physical and psychological health). Likewise, there was a direct relationship between overall job stress and job satisfaction.     

Research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: A call to action for psychological science

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represents the greatest international biopsychosocial emergency the world has faced for a century, and psychological science has an integral role to offer in helping societies recover. The aim of this paper is to set out the shorter- and longer-term priorities for research in psychological science that will (a) frame the breadth and scope of potential contributions from across the discipline; (b) enable researchers to focus their resources on gaps in knowledge; and (c) help funders and policymakers make informed decisions about future research priorities in order to best meet the needs of societies as they emerge from the acute phase of the pandemic. The research priorities were informed by an expert panel convened by the British Psychological Society that reflects the breadth of the discipline; a wider advisory panel with international input; and a survey of 539 psychological scientists conducted early in May 2020. The most pressing need is to research the negative biopsychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate immediate and longer-term recovery, not only in relation to mental health, but also in relation to behaviour change and adherence, work, education, children and families, physical health and the brain, and social cohesion and connectedness. We call on psychological scientists to work collaboratively with other scientists and stakeholders, establish consortia, and develop innovative research methods while maintaining high-quality, open, and rigorous research standards.